Behold the Lamb

We are continuing in our study of the Gospel of John will be in John 1. If you are using a few Bible, feel free to use that and take it home with you. If you need a Bible, it's on page 886. We have finished the prologue and now we're beginning the historical narrative that John presents in our specific passages led by it is pushed by this question. Who are you? This is a question that the Jews are asking of John the Baptist. Who are you? And I think this is actually a helpful place for us to begin. I want to ask you, who are you? This is a question that we need to ask ourselves. Who am I? How do you see yourself? Now, we typically see ourselves through the eyes or the lenses of those around us. A child seeks to please their parents. A child seeks to please his or her parents. They see themselves in light of their parents. A teenager, while they're still under the authority of their parents, and they should see themselves in light of their parents, but a teenager begins to see themselves in light of their peers. See, it's those that we're seeking the approval of, or those we're seeking to impress, that's who we see ourselves through oftentimes. A student will see themselves in the eyes of their teacher, an employee through the eyes of their boss. Now, I want to propose today that we must see ourselves in light of God, because that is the only way we will truly see ourselves as we are. God's perspective is the only right and true perspective. We cannot know who we are unless we see who we are from God's point of view. This is the most basic elements of how God sees us. First, God sees every man and woman as made in his image. That means every human being has dignity and honor and worth. That means you have been created fearfully and wonderfully made with dignity and honor and worth. And that means your neighbor next to you has been made with that same dignity and honor and worth. The second most basic element we need to recognize. God sees us as sinners in need of grace. God sees it in rebellion against him. God sees our sin more than we do. He understands how simple we are, how simple we are more than we recognize our sin. And he knows, as we should know, that we cannot make up for our sin. We cannot work out a righteousness. We are sinners in need of grace. And the third thing, and this only applies to Christians, is that we are forgiven children of God by grace. We're part of the family forgiven because the son has died for us. We are children forgiven by grace. This morning, we're going to seek to know God more and we're going to seek to know what he says about us. And as we seek to know God more, we have to remember John 1 18. No one has ever seen God, the only God who is the Father's right side. He has made him known as we seek to know God. We seek to see what God says about us. We see that only in Jesus Christ. And so our pastor this morning says three things about Jesus Christ, the son that we're going to be looking at first. The son was expected. The son was expected. Second, the Son is the Lamb of God. The Son is the Lamb of God. And third, the Son baptizes with the Spirit. Now, I'm thankful for Brother Ben and the way he proclaimed God's words so faithfully last week. We can praise God for how he gifts so many in the body. But I want to remind us of the prologue because that really sets up this historical narrative. The prologue is essential to understand what John is now going to do. In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. John begins by alluding very clearly to Genesis to show that there is one God. He's a creator and there's God in his word and they're both creator. There's one God. And the God and his word, they're both creator now. Now, that is mysterious. That is that is difficult for us to say, because our language is that meant to describe God. Our language is meant to describe this earth. But here in our own language, God is revealing himself. God and his word, or better, as we understand later in scripture, later in the prologue, the father and the son are the one creator. that word that was there who created all things. He then took upon flesh. He dwelt among us, and that is for a redemptive purpose. He became like us, yet without sin. They could die for us in our place so that we could have life again. No one can see God unless they see God in Jesus Christ, the God who became man. Now, verse 19 picks up the historical account, and he begins with John the Baptist. As a prologue, had John the Baptist sprinkled throughout, he's constantly intermingling John the Baptist with the beginning of Jesus' story, Jesus' life. That's because John represents the old covenant. John, the evangelist, wants us to make wants to make sure that we understand that Jesus does not appear out of nowhere. He's not appearing in a vacuum. There's been a long history. There's been a long story that God has provided that has prepared the way for Jesus. Let me read before we begin, John 1, 19 through 28. And this is a testimony of John the Baptist, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, who are you? He confessed and did not deny, but confess, I am not the Christ. And they asked him, what then are you, Elijah? He said, I am not. Are you the prophet? And he answered, no. So they said to him, who are you? We need to give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?" He said, I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness. Make straight the way of the Lord, as the prophet Isaiah said. Now they had been sent from the Pharisees. They asked him, then why are you baptizing? If you are neither the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the prophet, John answered them. I baptize with water, but among you stands one you do not know. Even he comes after me, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie." These things took place in Bethany, across the Jordan, where John was baptizing. Now, the first thing I want us to see here is that Jesus, the Son, He was expected. The priests come in verse 19. Who are you? The priest was sent by the Jews, if you remember in the prologue, he came to his own, speaking of Jesus Christ, and his own knew him not. That's the Jews. Those he had made his own people, he came to them and they knew him not. Now these Jews, they're sending the religious leaders, the Levites, and we know from verse 24, the Pharisees, they're coming and they're asking John, who are you? The religious leaders are sent by the Jews to ask John, who are you? Now, there's a bit of an irony here. John was sent by God to say he's the Christ. They're asking the wrong question. John only wants to tell you who Jesus is. He doesn't want to know. He doesn't even care that you know who he is. They're asking the wrong question of the wrong man. John doesn't want to make a big deal. He doesn't want you to focus on who he is. His goal, his mission being sent by God is to be the voice that says this is who you need to be focusing upon. Speaking of Jesus Christ. Verse 20. John really couldn't make it any clearer. He confessed and did not deny, but confessed, I am not the Christ. I'm not the one you're looking for. You're looking for one who's going to come after me. So these who have come to inquire, well, they give a couple of guesses. Well, if you're not the Christ, what about Elijah or the prophet? Now, Elijah was a figure like Elijah was promised to come. You can look at Malachi 4-5, the last book of the Bible for us Protestants. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with the decree of utter destruction." So here we see this promise that one who's going to come like the prophet Elijah, he's going to come and he's going to preach a message of repentance. Well, that sounds a lot like John the Baptist. But John says, I'm not Elijah. Now, this is where it gets a little tricky. It's not a problem, but it gets a little tricky because Jesus says he is Elijah. You can see this in Matthew 11, 14, Mark 9, 13, and Luke 1, 17. Jesus recognizes who John is better than John. Now, a point I want to make here is that you don't have to recognize who you are for God to use you for what he wants to do with you. There's a great example of this. Psalm 22 says that there will be guards, there will be people who will divide the lots of the Savior. Matthew 27, 35 actually records that this happened at the cross of Jesus Christ. The guards cast lots over Jesus' garments as He's dying. These guards had no idea that they were fulfilling a prophecy from Psalm 22 hundreds of years ago. They had no idea, but there they are being used by God, His sovereignty, to fulfill what God had already promised and prophesied. We see that this just points to us that, one, the Scriptures are reliable. Most of all, we see that God is powerful to display His glory as He wants to, regardless if we're aware of it or not. So, he doesn't really seem to be clear in his own particular mission as Elijah, even though that appears to be part of his identity or his part in the plan. This tells us something fairly significant about John. He's a model of humility. He is a servant of the kingdom, as we saw in the prologue and as we see later in this passage. He who ranks before me, I am not worthy to untie his sandals. This is a servant's job. A servant of a master would take off his shoes for him. He's saying, I'm below a servant. He who comes after me is so much greater than I, I'm not even worthy to be his servant. Now, he he sees himself rightly in view of God. He really sees God rightly. God is so glorious. God is so powerful. God is so worthy to worship. We're not worthy. But this is the other truth of God. He is so gracious to allow us to be servants in his kingdom. It is an act of grace by God to ever even begin to allow us to be servants in his kingdom. He equips us to serve by his grace. He calls us to serve by his grace. Serving God is not a right. We lost that in the garden. John the Baptist sees himself rightly by grace. He is a servant. He himself is unworthy to even untie the sandals of Christ. We must see ourselves rightly as children who have the privilege of serving God by grace. Now, how does one serve God by grace? Well, I can look around in this particular body and there's ways to serve. One can volunteer for vacation Bible school. One can volunteer for the nursery. One can volunteer for children's Sunday school. One can volunteer for cleaning up after the service. These are ways one can serve. The glorious head, Jesus Christ. Now. In case this is happening, and I trust it's not. In case this is happening, if you think any of these services are below you, you haven't seen yourself rightly in the grace of God. You haven't seen God rightly and you haven't seen the church correctly. See, there's no service beneath us. Because serving God is, we are beneath the privilege and responsibility of serving God. If there's a service of the church that's beneath you, you're failing to see yourself rightly. You're failing to see the church as God's glorious body that he wants you to serve, that he's equipped you to serve. You're failing to see God right, because he is worthy of our time and energy. Returning to verse 21, they ask him, are you the prophet? Their second guess. Are you Elijah? No. Are you the prophet? No. And here they're referring to Deuteronomy 18. God told Moses, another prophet like you will come. My word will be in his mouth. And here he's right, because I believe in some way John the Baptist could be a partial fulfillment of this. But ultimately, Jesus Christ is that prophet who ultimately comes and declares the truth of God. So now they ask straightforward. They're out of guesses. Who are you? Who are you? Verse 22. So they said to him, who are you? We need to give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself? Here he refers to Isaiah 40. I am the voice. I am the one calling in the desert. Make straight the way of the Lord. Make straight in the desert a highway Isaiah 40 is a very key transitional passage in Isaiah. It's the beginning of God declaring the servant songs. It's the beginning of God saying how he's going to fix everything that finally culminates in 65 and 66. A picture of the new heavens and the new earth. We see here he sees himself as the transitional figure from the old covenant to the new covenant. He's the last step of the ladder of prophets before we get to truly enter into the kingdom of God, because the king comes. He's the last ambassador that's coming to say he's coming. He is the one who gets to say he's here. He introduces a new step, the next step, and then the Pharisees, they're the ones that come on next in verse 24, and they ask a further question. then why are you baptizing? Now, they had sent with him some Pharisees. I believe the best way to see this is that there's there's some Pharisees are here with these Levites and leaders. They asked him, then why are you baptizing? If you're neither the Christ nor Elijah or the prophet, John answered them. I baptize with water. Now he's contrasting himself, as we'll see later, with Jesus, who's going to baptize with the Spirit. Water baptism is not new at this time. It's not novel, but what John is doing is very new. You see, if a Gentile, if a non-Israelite became a believer in the one true God of Israel, and they wanted to become a God-fear, they wanted to join Israel in worship of God, they would go to the bath outside of the temple and they would ceremonial wash themselves. They would baptize themselves. And that was representing the repentance of the Gentile to become an Israelite, a true believer in the one true God. This is what's so fascinating about John's ministry. He's baptizing them. He's administering the baptism. That's one novelty. The real offensive thing that he's doing is he's saying this to Jews. He's not calling Gentiles to repent of their paganism and their idolatry to become Jerusalemites. He's saying, Israel, you must repent. You need to repent of your religious ways that have perverted the truth of God that God has given you. He's telling the Jews that they have to repent. Stop your false religion that sounds right and bow down and worship the God with a true heart and a pure heart. Friends, this is a time to hear a warning. Because John the Baptist could show up today and look at the church. And he could say that you've been a cultural Christian your whole life, you've gone through the motions, you've been at church, you've looked good, you've dressed nice, you know your Bible verses, you sat in the pews, you've got the perfect attendance line, but you need to repent. You need to repent and believe. That you're a sinner in need of grace. If your faith or your trust is in how religious you've been, the message of John the Baptist is the message for you. Repent of your religious ways of trying to gain and earn a righteousness and believe that you're a sinner in need of grace. That's the warning and the challenge of the passage. We can also be greatly encouraged by this because John is putting Jesus in the big picture of God. He's putting him in the midst of the entire history of Israel. He doesn't just show up. God is showing that he has been sovereign throughout all of history to now bring his Savior in his perfect timing and in his perfect way. We can be encouraged that God is sovereign in his timing, his purpose, and his patience. We look back to the Bible and we see how long-suffering he is. We see that he's always good. Now, the reason this is important to do is that in the midst of our suffering, we can be overwhelmed in our moment. And we must see our moments of suffering in the big picture of God and what he is doing. Let me give you a few examples of suffering that is real and a hard suffering that we experience in this world and hopefully how we can see it in light of God's big picture. One great suffering is Losing a child. The curse in the womb is a difficult and hard curse to miscarry or to not be able to have children is a difficult struggle in life. But as we look through Scripture, we look from the very beginning, the womb was cursed, but in the middle of that, God made a promise that he would overcome that curse. He would reverse that curse and it was done through the womb. It was a child promised to Abraham, whose wife was barren, that he reversed that curse. We see that God is sovereign over the womb and that he is gracious and good for those who have difficulty in childbearing. We see ultimately that the Savior came through a virgin. God blessed the womb. Miscarriages are hard. They're difficult. We don't want to ignore the pain that is true and is there in those moments. But we have to look, we have to be able to say God is good. God is sovereign. God blesses the womb as he wills and God cares for us through the womb and his savior. Another temporary suffering that many are experiencing is The suffering that happens when our children go wayward, our children rebel, our children may never profess faith. Here we see that God is patient. You can look back and you can see how God was patient with who he calls his son, Israel. Look back at Israel and how foolish they are. How they take God's Word and they pervert it and they corrupt it over and over again. They go their own way, refusing to obey God over and over again. And you see that God is patient with them. He's long suffering with them. And he ultimately has his will with his children. If your child has gone wayward, trust. that if he affectionately called them to begin with, he will be effectual in calling them back to himself. If your child has ever professed faith in Christ, wait upon the God who saves sinners. Wait upon the God who is able to save sinners and trust that he will be good to you and your family. The final suffering is The suffering that happens as we grow older. Our bodies deteriorate, more pains, more agonies, more difficulties physically. The one I really want to focus on is the mind diminishes. There's dementia, there's Alzheimer's, there's a mind that grows dim. And as we see some members losing some ability to be thinking, as we see spouses, as we see our friends, our brothers, Will you be patient? Will you be long-suffering with these brothers and sisters? And most of all, this is the hope that I want to give us as we see that the mind, it does grow dim for those believers whose minds and their eyes grow dim one day when Christ returns, their eyes will be brighter than they could possibly ever imagine because their eyes will look at the light that was never created, the perfect light, the ultimate life, Jesus Christ. That light will shine in their eyes so bright. They will see and think and love clearer than they ever have in this earth. Long for that day when our bodies are renewed, our minds are made whole and we see Christ as He is and He healed everything about us. We must long for that life without sin, without miscarriages, without barrenness, without rebellion of our own hearts and those we love and look to the God who is coming back to save us. Now, this main point was that Christ was to be expected. He was expected. The problem with Israel is they were not expecting him properly. In order to be faithful as Israel, they were supposed to have faith that the promises of God were going to be fulfilled in a man. Their faith, their faithfulness was dependent upon them looking ahead. Our faith is looking back. We get to see that Jesus Christ fulfilled the promises. Every promise of the old covenant is yes and amen in Christ. So we get to look back. But in order for us to truly be faithful, we must be looking ahead as well. We have to long for the return of Christ. We have to be looking ahead and long for the return of Christ. If we're not longing for the return of Christ, then we are loving this world. If we're not longing for Christ to remove sin, we're enjoying our sin too much. If you're fighting with sin, if you feel ensnared and entrapped by sin, one of the ways that you can find grace to overcome it. is to meditate upon the days that are ahead when sin will no longer entangle and ensnare us and long for those days where we worship the Lamb with pure hearts. The second main thing, the second point of the sermon, the second thing we want to see this morning is that Jesus is the Lamb of God. We've got an identity of John, but Again, John is the voice that wants to declare who Jesus is. And our text is just verse 29. The next day, John the Baptist saw Jesus coming toward him and said, Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the center of the world. He is the voice that's preparing the way that will cry out when the Messiah comes. Here he is. And we get to see now. Behold the Lamb of God. Now, as he's found his identity in Isaiah 40, I believe it's best to try to find the identity of this Lamb of God from Isaiah. I think the best clue that we might find of who this Lamb is, what he means by this phrase, Lamb of God, which is actually fairly novel to John the Baptist. What does he mean by this? I think we can see some hint, if not the clearest allusion to what he is speaking of in the Suffering Servant song. In Isaiah 52, beginning in 52, verse 13. Behold, my servant shall act wisely. He shall be high and lifted up. And he shall be exalted, as many were astonished at you, his appearance was so marred beyond human semblance and his form beyond that of the children's mankind, so that so shall he sprinkle many nations. kings shall shut their mouths because of him for that which has not been told them they see and that which they have not heard they understand who has believed what he has heard from us and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed for he grew up before him like a young plant and like a root out of the dry ground he had no form or majesty that we should look at him and no beauty that we should desire him we already hear that that John language from the prologue He came to his own and his own did not know him. Listen to verse 3. He was despised and rejected by men. A man of sorrows, acquainted with grief, and as one from whom men hide their faces, so he was despised and we have seen him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we have seen him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. He was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace. And with his wounds, we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray and we have turned everyone to his own way. And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and he was afflicted Yet he opened not his mouth like a lamb that has led to the slaughter, like a sheep that before it shears is silenced. So he opened not his mouth by oppression. The judgment he was taken away and asked for his generation to consider that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people. And they made his grave with the wicked or the rich man in his death, although he had done no violence and there was no deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him. He has put him to grief when his soul makes an offering for guilt. He shall see his offering. He shall prolong his days. The will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul, he shall see and be satisfied by his knowledge of the righteous one. My servant make many to be accounted righteous. He shall bear their iniquities. Therefore, I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoiled with the strong. Because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors, yet he bore the sin of many and makes intercession for the transgressors." This suffering servant, who is like a lamb going to the slaughter, he bore the iniquity of men. He was He suffered and died for the transgressions of the many. We are all sinners. We have all rebelled against God. We have all chosen to walk in our own way and to worship what we think is right, rather than worship the one who is truly worthy of it. And that right and just God must punish our sin. We are worthy of being crushed. We are worthy of his condemnation. But God so loved the world, God so loved those who were rebelling against him that he sent his son to become like us, to be one of us, so that on him he could exercise and pour out his wrath. He suffered for us so that we are now counted free if we believe in him. We are counted forgiven and his righteousness is accounted to us. So that we now have a right standing before God that is completely foreign to us, that is completely opposite of what we truly deserve. Christ is portrayed in many ways, is portrayed by many different images and illustrations for Scripture. The lion is one that we love because the lion represents the one who conquers our enemy, Satan. He's able to conquer the enemy who's seeking to entangle us and ensnare us and divert us. But the lamb is the image that we're going to see Christ as throughout history, throughout eternity. It is the lamb that we focus upon. The lamb identifies him best because our greatest enemy is God without Christ. God hates sin. His wrath is the scariest thing to us as sinners, and it's only if the Lamb comes and takes that sin away from us, takes the wrath we deserve upon Himself, that we're then friends with God. Our greatest danger, our greatest fear becomes our greatest delight because the Lamb takes away our sin and gives us a new standing before God. If you're not a Christian, You must hear that you're a sinner in need of grace. You're a sinner in need of grace. There's two important things that I pray is clear this morning. We are all sinners. We have broken the most foundational commands of God. Everyone in this room is a sinner. We all have worshipped the wrong God. We have all refused the right God. Worship alone. We all have lust residing in our hearts. We all have anger raging in our hearts. We all lie and believe in lies. We all covet what our neighbor has. These are breaking God's commandments in the way he intends for us to live. We are all sinners. And the conclusion of that is that we're all just. God is just in judging us. The second thing I pray is clear is that you're a first sinner, you're a sinner. Second, the only hope you have is that Jesus Christ is your savior. You cannot make yourself better. You cannot cleanse yourself from sin, you cannot make yourself right, you cannot outdo the wrong you've done with right. Here are the words of the hymn, Come You Sinner. Come you weary, heavy laden. lost and ruined by the fall. If you tarry till you're better, you will never come at all. Let not conscience make you linger, not of fitness fondly dream. All the fitness he requires is to feel your need of him. The only thing that is preparation for you to become a Christian is to recognize there is nothing you can do for yourself. Stop believing you have to be good enough to believe in Jesus Christ. You believe in Jesus Christ because you know there is nothing you can do that can make you right before God. There is nothing we can do to make us fit for grace. There's nothing we can do to think that we can make ourselves better before God. We believe not in what we do. We believe in what Christ has done for us. Deny the lie that you need to be good enough to be a Christian. Believe that Christ, in His death and resurrection, He is sufficient for your salvation. If you're not a Christian, resist the temptation to think you have tomorrow. If God is moving in your heart, believe in Him now. Believe that Christ has died for you, a sinner. Believe He is risen again and He's coming soon. If you are a Christian, as we meditate upon the Lamb of God, I have a message for you as well. You must hear that you're a sinner in need of grace. Now, if you're taking notes, that's the same message that the non-Christian received. We are sinners in need of grace. It is remarkable how easy this is to forget. We are sinners in need of grace. The problem for most Christians is we confess we were saved by grace, but then we need to make God happy with our own works. We need to keep trying to please God now by being a good person. This typically leads to two different paths. First, those who are overwhelmed with guilt. Second, those who are underwhelmed by their sin. There's two main problems when we forget that we are sinners in need of grace. First, Those overwhelmed with guilt. These are the Christians who have the conscience. They keep looking at their lives and they keep seeing that it doesn't line up with scripture. And they keep thinking, why am I not good enough? Why am I not progressing? Why am I not lining up with everything God says in his word? It's because you're a sinner and you're saved by grace. We so easily think that we're saved by grace and never become children of works. No, we're always saved by grace for good works. We are never good enough to please God. All we can ever do is simply look to him, believe in him, stop trying to think you need to be good enough to be a Christian. No matter how long you've been a Christian, it's by grace that you are saved. And every time we come back to that conclusion, we bow down, we worship and we thank God for his grace. The danger of this position is you never have any assurance to truly enjoy God. If you constantly think I'm not good enough to please God and that's where it stops without grace, you lose the assurance. and the joy of knowing Christ and his grace. The second outcome of those who would see works are the way that we continue to please God after grace. We can easily become underwhelmed by our sin. We do not see sin as dangerous and as powerful in our own hearts and our own eyes and our own minds as it truly is. We forget that salvation is from outside of us and sin comes from within. We might see sin every now and then as creeping in from the outside. No, that's not what sin is. Sin is in our heart seeking to burst forth. And it's only by God's grace that we are not consumed and overwhelmed by it. We fail to see that we are completely dependent upon God. If we think we are like sinners or sinners, we're underwhelmed by our sin. The danger here is you don't get to experience grace in the body. If you're underwhelmed by your sin, you're constantly seeking to hide real sin. You're constantly trying to present yourself as right and good. And what you do is you rob yourself of the grace that is meant to be enjoyed in the body. And you rob the body of the grace that God has intended you to bring to the body. The body is united in the fact that we confess together that we are sinners in need of grace. The last thing we'll see are our final verses. Jesus baptizes with the spirit. Look to verse 30. This is he of whom I said. After me comes a man who ranks before me because he was before me. I myself did not know him, but for this purpose I came baptizing with water. that he might be revealed to Israel and John bore witness. I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove and it remained on him. I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, he on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain. This is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit and I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God. John's Gospel doesn't have the baptism of Jesus. That's one of the things that stands out about John's Gospel, but here he's clearly alluding to the baptism of Jesus. You can see this event that he's speaking of in Matthew 3, the baptism of Jesus. As Jesus is being immersed in the water, he's being baptized by John. The Father breaks forth, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. And the Spirit descends upon him. Now, John makes the point that the one who sent him, who is God, told him, this is how you'll know who the Messiah is. You'll see the Spirit descend upon him. Now, many figures in the Old Testament had the Spirit descend upon them. Kings had the Spirit, but the kings, it would come and it would go. But Jesus Christ, he is the Messiah because he is the one eternally and forever anointed to be our mediator. He is the one who has always existed. He is the one who is preeminent over all things. He is the one that John says, look to him, quit asking me who I am. My job is to you see who he is. In the baptism, we see a powerful picture of the triune God. The father has sent his son. The son has Obediently come, the Father sent the Son to become like us, to die for us, and the Holy Spirit empowers him. The entire Godhead is purposed to saving sinners. Now, what does it mean that John baptized with water and Jesus baptizes with the Spirit? John's water baptism is a baptism that says, Repent, be prepared. Jesus's spirit baptism is one that gives new life and changes your identity. It's the power of God to make you a new creation. Now, I want to begin talking about spirit baptism by saying this. The baptism of the spirit is common for all Christians. When I say the word common, that doesn't mean it's not supernatural. It is. It's God giving you a new identity. Some have taught that there's the Christian new life you receive when you believe in Jesus Christ. And then there's a second blessing for some. That is the baptism of the Holy Spirit. I believe that is a false teaching. When you believe in Christ, it's because the Spirit has given you faith and has already baptized you. There is no second blessing of the baptism of the Spirit. When you receive the Spirit, you receive all of it. There is no extra later. The Spirit who seals you, who gives you faith, who regenerates you, is the one and same Spirit for all Christians. Let's conclude by just asking, what does the Spirit do when he baptizes us? He gives us a new identity. He's the one who seals us in our adoption. But let's walk through, I just want to walk through a few things the Spirit does for us so we can worship the God who has given us a Spirit baptism. First, the Spirit convinces us. We are darkened in our understanding. Unless light shines upon us, we would never be convinced of the gospel because we are foolish. We in our rebellion and our desires want to reject the gospel, but the Spirit convinces us. This is why we love the illuminating power of the Spirit. It shines upon our hearts and upon the gospel so that we see that God's truth is true. Two applications of this. We never think we're smart enough to become Christians. We realize that it's by God's grace that he has illuminated our minds and the gospel. This leads to humility and thankfulness. The second application, when we share the gospel. It's not your job to convince someone to become a Christian. It's your responsibility to make the gospel clear and trust the power of the spirit to convince. You cannot convince someone to become a Christian. You can proclaim him faithfully and wait upon the spirit to do the convincing. Secondly, as you will make clear later in John, the spirit convicts, the spirit convicts. Now, I believe there must be something different between the spirit convicting and the natural shame that all humanity feels when they do something wrong. In order to truly be convicted, the Spirit acts and moves in you to see your sin in light of the holiness of God, simultaneously in light of the cross of Jesus Christ that gives you mercy. When we're convicted, we see our sin in light of God and His holiness and in light of God and His mercy. It's more than just feeling bad, feeling guilty, or being shamed. It's a conviction that allows us to see how far our sin has offended God and how far God has come to forgive that sin. Third, the Spirit converts. Jesus will teach, you must be born again. We saw in John 1, the prologue, you become children of God by the will of the Father. The Spirit is the one who gives that new life. What Christ accomplished for us on the cross, the Spirit takes that and applies it to us. He removes our death and he gives us the life of Christ. Second, the Spirit unites us. First, the Spirit unites us with Christ. He seals us in His blood. The Spirit is not doing anything separate from Jesus Christ. Those whom Christ died for, the Spirit is saving. The Spirit applies the adoption. He applies the righteousness. We know the Son because of the Spirit. The Spirit first unites us to Christ. And secondly, because we're united to Christ, He unites us with the body. When the Spirit baptizes us, He unites us with the body. We are meant to be with the Church. We experience the Spirit the most, I believe, in the Church. This is God's order system. There's the head, there's the body, and it's within the body that one will first and foremost experience the Holy Spirit. The Church is the organized body of Christ where we should expect to hear the Spirit speak the most. The Spirit also equips us. The Spirit gives us all gifts. The Spirit enables us to serve, and it's a privilege to serve. Now, I want to make one brief comment here. The problem with the giftings, I see in myself and sometimes in others, is that we oftentimes wish we had somebody else's gifts. You see other people's gifts and you're always thinking, if only I had that gift. Friend, be involved in the church and serving in such a way that the church sees your gifts and encourage you in the gifts you have and how God is using you for his glory in the service of the kingdom. We can't keep looking and saying, I wish I had this gift. No, we need the body of Christ to help us know what our gifts are and we can most glorify God with those gifts. Finally, the spirit keeps us unsatisfied in this world. The spirit's crying out for that new creation. The spirit should be living in our hearts and crying out for that new creation. When Christ returns to the new heaven, a new earth, the light is shining. There's no more sin. And we worship the lamb with unpunished, with with with clean hands and pure hearts. If the Spirit resides in us, if the Spirit is baptized in us, we don't love this world. We long and expect Christ to return and renew all things. Will you pray with me? Father, we thank you for your word. For the riches that we see in it. We thank you for the truth that you declare to us that we can see how you've been active throughout all of history to care for us so that we can see in the midst of our of our what is a momentary suffering, how you are good at all times and for all people. We can trust that you are good to us. Help us, Lord, to believe your word and in your goodness. Most of all, Father. May your spirit help us all to see Jesus Christ as he is, as the Savior, as our grace, as your love for us. Help us, Lord, to live faithfully while we linger in this world, longing and looking forward to that new heavens and the new earth. In the name of Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.