Gospel of John, 1:14-34
John · Mike Doyle · Jan 20, 2008
Gospel of John (2008), No. 03
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926050496252

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

OK, we're streaking ahead to John chapter or lesson three. We're still in chapter one and we have arrived at verse 14. So if you everybody have a copy of lesson three, I don't know if I got any more. Would you make one, Peggy? Peggy, do you need one? Less than three. Make a couple. Is that three? Yes. I need a three. Did everybody get a four for next week? Anybody not get a four? OK.

John chapter 1, we're going to try to do 20 verses today. We'll see how that goes. Verse 14, And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. So the Word became here. We talked a little bit about it last week. When it says that the Word, who is the second person of the Trinity, became flesh, what's became mean? That's the word ginomai for you Greek geeks. What's ginomai mean, or became mean?

It means he became into something he never was before, a new state of being, new kind and quality, to come into being. So even though he's the preexistent God, He's the word. He became something. He was never before. And he's going to always be that.

So. So innocent little was there is an essence. What an essence. The word was essence for explain. We have guys in here that don't know what was. It indicates that the word existed, always existed. Yeah, that's right. The word always existed. So what's the significance of dwelt among us? Yeah. Tabernacled with us. But what I'm after is this. You know, why didn't he become an angel or why didn't he do something else? Why is dwelling among us such a big deal?

Fully man, fully God. So, he's the full expression of God, but he adapted, taking man's own nature and to all that is in man, to meet every human need. It's interesting that God sets up agenda where in order to meet man's need, God had to become a man. Isn't that interesting? So, he who was with God and he who was God was made flesh and he was identified with man. He's 100% God and he's 100% man.

So, what did he bring with him that was brand new? What's the verse say? Grace and truth, right? So, He just didn't come and declare grace and truth. He is those things. He doesn't have those things. He is those things. And so they come with Him, and it reveals His love towards sinners, and He does not bring law. Those of you who were in the grace class, we spent a lot of time talking about the difference between law and grace.

So what does truth do? Let's talk a little bit about truth. Let me ask an easy question. What is truth? Reveal the light. What is truth? That which pertains to reality as it is. Say that again. That which pertains to reality as it is. That which pertains to reality as it is.

Best answer. What's interesting about this, you know, we have what I call Greek minds. We're educated in the Greek system, and it's kind of like this. We're the center of everything. We're going to go out and learn as much as we can learn, accumulate this information, and then we're going to decide what's true. Right? We're either going to do it by consensus of opinion, or we're going to study the laws of nature, or whatever, but we're going to arrive at truth.

The problem with that is that it doesn't put God at the center. The Lord Jesus Christ is the embodiment. He is truth itself. And so when He shows up on the planet, everything has to relate to Him in some manner or not. So He shows the relationship of everything to God because He is truth. And he also shows the departure of everything from God that isn't truth. You see that? So, you could say he demonstrates what God is, because if he doesn't come, we really don't know.

He also shows what perfect man is, because he's the perfect man. He also demonstrates, because He is perfect, what sinful man is. Because if you describe sin as falling short of the mark, then you have to define who or what the mark is. What's the mark?

It's the Lord Jesus Christ. So short of Him is sin. You always thought it was a bunch of bad stuff you always did. Nah, it's short of Him. He demonstrates by being here what the world is. And he also exposes the world's prince for what he is. So it's interesting that Christ's presence on this planet brings all of these things out because of what he is and who he is.

In Ephesians 4.21 it says, If indeed you have heard him and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus Christ.

And Colossians 2.3, which is one of my favorite verses, it says, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. So you always thought wisdom and knowledge was hidden in the Library of Congress, didn't you? It's not there.

It's in the Lord Jesus Christ himself. So John says, and he who is the truth and who is full of grace, John and his disciples beheld the glory of the only begotten Son with the Father. But we'll cover grace in a minute. So, God comes in the flesh to the earth, and just by His very presence, these things are part and parcel of who He is. Okay, any questions there? The next few verses we're going to talk about John the Baptist, and he is the one who bears witness to the Son of God. So 15, John bore witness of him and cried out saying, This was he of whom I said, He who comes after me is preferred before me, for he was before me.

So what does preferred before me mean? What's that? Higher than. What's that? Existed before me. Yeah, he did do that and also was in a position of preference Before John showed up now maybe at this point We're right at at the at the point where the Lord Jesus is going to start his public ministry And I don't you find it interesting that in John's gospel you you get 15 verses or 14 verses of here he is and now his ministry starts and In the other Gospels, there's talk about him growing up and stuff like that, but not here. He's here, ministry starts. And a description of who he is from a spiritual standpoint. So, John preceded him in service, but Jesus was preferred before him or above him.

Okay, the next thing I ask you to do is define grace and truth. Now, those of you who are in the grace class don't get the answer. What is grace? Probably the best definition that I've ever come across is that one from Chester McCauley. It's the unlimited, so no limits, and it's totally unmerited, you cannot earn it, blessings from God based on the totally adequate work of Christ, based on what he did. So grace is full on all the time because it came in Christ.

It's totally unlimited, so you cannot wear it out, overuse it, ever be in a position where it isn't an overriding factor. It's unmerited. You cannot do anything to earn it. And that is a very, very tough concept to take in because we are such if I, you will kind of people. If I do this, then you will. I'm a salesman. I'm all about if I will, you will, and I get money.

If I serve, then God will bless me. If grace is here, and the definition is it's unmerited, then I'm already blessed, right? And I'm already blessed way beyond even my worst need. Because where sin did abound, what did grace do? Just met the need. It's super abounded.

The thing about grace is that if you use it, if you use it and take it, it super abounds. If you don't use it and you find yourself functioning under a lost system, you're out of the grace realm altogether, even though it's still there and still coming at you. So you cannot overuse it.

How do you take it? How do you take grace? What do you do with the grace that's extended to you? What's the word you use? Thank you. You know, the word grace and the word thank you are the same word in Greek, charis. So the way you use grace is you take it and you use it and you thank God for it. And I think all of us who have ever been in a position where we really had a demonstration of God's grace, your reaction to that is only thank you. And as soon as you start to manipulate it, it goes away. Thank you and take it.

He brings grace. We talked about what truth is. Truth is simple and it puts everything exactly in its place, morally and in its nature. A little quote here from one of the Brethren guys. Here's how he describes it. Truth shines, everything is perfectly manifested, grace is given. Isn't that cool? So, okay.

17. For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. So let's talk a little bit about the difference in service. between our friend Moses and the Word of God, the Lord Jesus. Both of them were servants. What does Moses bring in his service?

What's he all about? He brings the law given by Moses. Is the law perfect? Absolutely it is. And what did the law do? What did the law When Moses shows up with the law, what does it do? When he presents it to the nation of Israel, is this a grace deal in any manner? No, it's not. So what does the law do? What's the purpose of the law? Why did he do it? Why did he bring it? Why did God put it in play through Moses? The law is a school teacher to lead us to Christ?

Okay, yeah. What it does is it absolutely shows man what's required of him by God. Isn't that what it does? It puts him in a position. It says, man, here's the law. I'm the law giver through my servant Moses, and this is what I expect of you. This is what I require of you. 700 and however many of them there were, on God's part, and this is what man ought to be, right? So the law comes and says through Moses, a minister of God, this is what you guys ought to be. And I'm God, I'm the creator, and this is what I require of you, okay? But God now reveals himself in Christ. Was the law the full and entire truth? It couldn't be, because the truth is in Christ and Christ hadn't been given yet. So the law wasn't a complete story, so to speak.

What happens if a man was able to fulfill the requirements of the law, in terms of the man standing? He would be righteous in himself. Righteous means what? Right standing before God. If you could keep the law, you could go to God and say, OK, you said I got to and I did. And God would say, OK, man, you are righteous in yourself. You have a right standing before me because you've lived up to all the requirements that I have demanded of you.

Let's see, in 10 seconds or less, name all the guys who did that. Nobody did. So, the problem here is that if you can do that, you're righteous in yourself. Does that make sense? And now you can stand before God and say, Hey, I've lived up to what you called me, now you can bless me.

But the problem is that Christ comes on the scene, and he stands there as the perfect man before God and before men, and he is what man ought to be. There hasn't been that kind of man around before. Even Adam in his innocence isn't that kind of a man. So he shows what God is, and he shows that if the Lord Jesus is here as the perfect man, and all other men haven't lived up to the requirements of God, the only hope for man is this thing called grace. That's the only hope.

Now, what does grace do for man that the law couldn't do? What do you think? If grace is unlimited and unmerited blessings from God, what does grace do that the law couldn't do? It blesses man. It brings blessing with it. Now, this isn't one of the questions, but what did God do? I'll put it this way.

What God did to effectuate grace to you and me, was it a gracious act? We said that our definition of grace was based on the totally adequate work of Christ. Is the totally adequate work of Christ a gracious act on God's part? Understand the question? What do you think? All right, the grace class guys can answer. The answer is no, it isn't. It cost God everything that was of any value to Him. It cost Him His Son. But the cost to God means it's free to you.

God has to satisfy His own righteousness before He can act graciously. Does that make sense? He just doesn't arbitrarily sit in heaven and say, we're going to be gracious from now on to sinful man. No. Because he's righteous and because man was sinful, he has to satisfy his righteousness before he can act graciously. Now, sending his son is a gracious act, but he can't be gracious towards man until his righteousness is satisfied. So, in the Lord Jesus Christ, The big differences in his ministry is that what he brings to the table and what Moses brought to the table. Moses brought law, Christ brings grace and truth.

And he's both, Christ is both at once. You understand what I mean by that? In other words, the word came is in singular after grace and truth, which means Christ is both grace and truth at the same time. So what Christ brings with him that's entirely new is what? Grace. See that? Does that mean that God was not gracious in the Old Testament? He acted graciously at times, but he did it based on knowing what Christ was going to do in the future. Here's the other thing that I'm after in that question. It sounds like a redundant question, but it isn't.

The world operates under systems, right? What system, operating system, did the nation of Israel live under? A mosaic law system. It was just like, you know, you open up your laptop and if you've got a Mac, it operates under a Mac system. You've got a Dell, it operates under a Windows system. Under the Moses system, or the mosaic system, Israel operated under a law system.

But the Lord Jesus Christ comes and he brings a new system with him. It's called grace. So we now, as members of the body of Christ, live under and in an entirely new system. And we have no education, no understanding, no nothing about this new system. The first inkling we have is when we're saved. And if we don't learn it, we'll never live under it. We never will because we have to learn every part of it because it's entirely new. We have to learn that blessing is first. We have to learn about who the Lord Jesus is and what his attitude towards us is.

You read Paul's epistles from a gracious standpoint and the grace is overwhelming. You can't take it in. It's way too much. To understand that we live under and in a grace system, and we have to learn it all and live under it, is a tough thing. Because what we try to do is sneak a little law in next to it. Because grace doesn't have any mile markers as to how I'm doing. If I'm blessed unlimitedly, why do I need to gauge it? I don't. I just need to receive it. See? Okay. Any questions? That was the whole grace class in two minutes.

No one has seen or beheld or perceived God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him. Where did the Lord Jesus come from? The bosom of the Father. Kind of a cool place. Why that designation? I mean, why couldn't he say he came from heaven? Divine. I could have said he came from the essence of God. Why the bosom? Why that? George. Yeah, that's exactly right.

What the bosom of the father tells us is this intimacy. that the Lord Jesus has with the Father, and that that's the way they function and operate all the time, and He has come out of that position to do what? To explain to us what that position is like. He came from the bosom of the Father.

Colossians 1.19 says, It pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness of God should dwell.

The amazing thing about this verse, I mean, I'm always interested and maybe it's just one of my quirks. My wife says, you know, Mike doesn't remember your birthday and sometimes doesn't remember your name, but he always knows where you're from. And I think it's because when I grew up, I went to boarding school and everybody was from somewhere. So you learn that about everybody. Maybe you learn that in college sometimes. Well, where are you from? Well, I'm from Aurora, Denver, Minneapolis or someplace. I knew people by where they were from. So when I see a verse like this, gee, where did the Lord Jesus come from?

Was he just hanging around in heaven and said, okay, it's Tuesday, it's time to head to the earth. It demonstrates the intimacy and the love of God that they have for each other. The three persons of the Trinity. and that the Lord Jesus has come from that environment to reveal that environment to us, to save us, and to take us back there. We're going to spend all eternity in the bosom of the Father, not heaven, in the bosom of the Father, because we're in Christ. So that's why I think it's such an interesting phrase, as we recognize that intimacy is what God is after with us.

Now this is the testimony of John when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, who are you? When John was questioned by the Jews and the priests, where did all of these concerns come from? In other words, why was John such a big deal?

Why wasn't he just some sort of nondescript guy over someplace who's baptizing people in the river, and maybe he's got a few disciples, big deal. What is it? I mean, there's enough impact here that from the temple, here comes some priests who are Levites, and down to ask him, and they're not just not curious, they've been sent to ask him, who are you? What are they concerned about?

John is the first what in Israel in 450 years? He's the first prophet. Now these guys aren't really acquainted with prophets because there hasn't been one around in a while. So they're going to go down and they're going to investigate what he's about. The verses, did I give you the verses? Malachi, behold I send you Elijah, the prophet before coming. of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. Now they're a little nervous that maybe this guy is really Elijah and bad things are about to happen to the nation of Israel. So they're down there checking that out.

Or in Deuteronomy 18, 15, the Lord our God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren, him you shall hear. I will raise up from them a prophet like you from among their brethren, And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him." So these guys being Old Testament scholars, they're a little nervous about who this John the Baptist is, because he is not intimidated by them at all. And he lives the life of a prophet, and he isn't afraid to take on the establishment.

Matthew 17.10, and his disciples ask him, Why then do the scribes say that Elijah must come first? So they're nervous. They want to know who John the Baptist is. They want to know that maybe God has done something without letting them in on the game plan.

So John answered and said, he confessed and did not deny, but confessed, I am not the Christ. What's he saying there? I am not the Christ. What did they think the Christ was? Yeah, the Messiah of Israel. And that's what they're looking for. And they ask him, what then? Are you Elijah? And he said, no, I'm not. Are you the prophet? No, he says. Then they said to him, well, who are you?

That we may give an answer to those who sent us. What do you have to say about yourself? So these guys have been sent. And they're wanting to find out what he's all about. Now, we're going to see later on in John that sometimes the Pharisees and they get a little nervous because of Jesus's ministry because people are paying attention to him and not listening to them. And I think this same psychology is in play here. They're thinking, gee, there's quite a few guys that are, you know, responding to what John is doing, we better go find out what he's about.

And if he's a bad guy, we'll have a trial and put him out of his misery. He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord, as the prophet Isaiah said. And that comes from Isaiah 40, verse 3. The voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

All great men have these things called heralds. All great men have men who precede them, who announce who they are. We're in the middle of primary elections. Every one of these candidates have lots of heralds. Come to town, make a big deal about who that person is and announce him, and then he's going to be at Holly Hills Bible Church on Thursday at 4.30. That kind of thing. Well, that's what John the Baptist is, but in Isaiah, he's been prophesied as to be the herald. He's going to announce that the one coming behind me is the great one.

Now, those who were sent were from the Pharisees. Have we talked about Pharisees before? There's Pharisees and Sadducees and Ascends. The Pharisees and Sadducees, in my best understanding, would be like the conservatives and the liberals. The Sadducees were the liberals. They didn't believe in the resurrection and a lot of stuff. The Pharisees were the conservative guys and they sort of were, although they had totally messed up Judaism by this point, they were the guys that were fairly conservative and actually would be interested in John the Baptist. I don't think the Sadducees would be. They don't care. But the Pharisees do. Okay? Verse 25.

And they ask him, saying, Why then do you baptize if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the prophet? Now, what's baptism all about? You know, we've always thought it was a Christian thing. But it's not. You know, people were baptized unto Moses in the desert. In the Old Testament, what is baptism? What was its purpose? What did it serve? No, not in the Old Testament. What it meant was that you identified yourself with whomever baptized you. It was an event in which people who identified with a certain leader were baptized or identified with him.

In this case, what is John the Baptist asking people to do? He's asking them to be baptized for what purpose? So that they can be disciples of John the Baptist? Why is he asking them to do it? So you just said it, why don't you say it again? It's a baptism of repentance. What does repentance mean? It just means to change your mind. What did these people change their mind about? They didn't know him yet. It's not on the scene. So John the Baptist is out there, you know, inviting people to be baptized. And the baptism of repentance, he wants them to change their mind. About what?

Their sins. Their sins? Okay. So before that time they didn't think they were sinners and now they do? I think they knew that they were the chosen ones and didn't think they had any reason to be. Does this baptism give them forgiveness of their sins?

No. No, it doesn't. What they're doing is that John is preaching a message that the Messiah is coming and that really the Jewish system that they're living under now is a corrupted system. It's not what God gave Moses on Sinai. And so he wants them to change their mind about the system and about sinfulness and be baptized to identify with that principle that he's preaching.

Now, is this the same thing we're talking about for us when we get baptized? Is all baptism the same? What's the difference between what John is asking us to do and what... I got to baptize my son, which is one of the coolest things I ever did. What's the difference between that and my son being baptized? He's identifying with me, he's going to do everything I tell him from now on. What's the difference? What is Christian baptism about? What is it a recognition of?

My union with Christ, that I have been crucified with Him, and I was buried with Him, and I've been resurrected with Him. Because that event hadn't taken place and nobody knew what was going to happen, the baptisms by that have to be different. Does baptism add anything to me as a believer? Let's say George here has never been baptized. He's a second-class Christian. He doesn't have as much grace as me because we never dunked him. What is that? Does he or doesn't he? Does baptism add anything to you? Not a thing.

But what it does, it's a representation of what happened to you positionally in Christ. And actually, I've always thought that baptismals shouldn't be in churches. They ought to be out in the front lawn. Because really what baptism says is, adios to the world. I'm done. I died to you. I'm now in Christ. I don't belong to you anymore.

And this is a symbol of what has happened. So baptism with us is something that we would do to someone who had become a believer and who I think understands what happened to them, not only necessarily for them, that their sins were forgiven, but also to them, that they have an understanding about that and they have an understanding about what they're going to do and what it means. So John's baptism and our baptism are different in content.

In Matthew 3.11, I indeed baptize with water unto repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than me, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire." Now, 26, John answered them, saying, I baptize in water, but among you stands one whom you do not know. It is he who is coming after me is preferred before me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose. These things were done in Bethany. beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing. Now, that ends a day. It actually ends, I think, day one of John's Gospel. So, the Pharisees didn't get much of an answer. They were asking targeted questions. They didn't get answers to their targeted questions. They got some answers, but they certainly didn't understand them.

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." Why do you think God had to furnish His own sacrificial Lamb? Now, God set up a system way back in the Garden of Eden, didn't He?

The principle was, the soul that sins, it must surely die. Right? That's the principle. So when Adam sins, What gets instituted? Something's going to die. Something's going to die. And when the Lord brought the skins to Adam and Eve, who were covering themselves with leaves, where did those skins come from? They had to come from a dead animal. So the principle of sacrifice to cover sins was instituted right there. So now Adam says, oh, no, never mind.

I like my philodendron. No, he takes the skins, which says to me that he accepted God's remedy for his own sin. OK, now I say philodendron because if you've ever been to Hawaii, philodendrons, you can make a three piece suit out of one of them. I think so. And I think he understood it because God said, look, you know, to cover yourself, I've given you these. But he has to accept them. I think so.

I think he understood them. And then he taught to Cain and Abel. And, you know, he's the one that he knew the principle, so he taught it. So when Cain and Abel came around to sacrificing, they understood. That's why God made a big issue out of Cain was going to offer up his plants or his crops rather than a blood sacrifice. And God said, no, you know, it's not the system or the principle is this. And Cain said, no way. I'm doing it my way.

So I think, yeah, I think they understood. So here you have Sacrifice, blood sacrifice, and just add one little caveat. Anybody years ago, go down to the museum and see the Aztec thing that was here, it was maybe ten years ago. It was a thing from Mexico City that came here and one of those tours you go through, you know. It was really fascinating.

They had blood sacrifice in their culture. Where do you think they came up with that idea? I mean, God didn't drop the Torah over there in Mexico City. Where did they come up with it? I think it's built into us to know that God is not happy, and the ultimate satisfaction that God requires is a life.

So some cultures sacrifice animals, but these Aztecs, they went one step further. They sacrificed humans, and oh, they had to be virgins. God would be more pleased. And when you went to see that thing, they spent 20 minutes explaining the sacrificial system they had and why they did it. And it was all because their God was angry about their sinfulness. And if the crops weren't growing and you were a virgin, you better run for cover. Blood sacrifice. Why did God have to supply His own land? Isn't that what he's doing? The Lamb of God. Interesting name, the Lamb of God. So God supplies his own lamb.

Why? We weren't good enough. You can't... say that again? The only person that was sufficient, that would qualify to meet the demand, had to be a perfect sacrifice. If you look at the Old Testament, Lambs and the things they were sent, they had to be without blemish and they had to be perfect. The red heifer, all the requirements, they had to be perfect, which demonstrates God is bringing his own lamb who is a man, who is his son, who is without blemish and without spot. So it takes a perfect lamb to satisfy a perfect God.

That's what it takes. God could round up the whole human race and sacrifice us all and it still wouldn't be good enough. Because why? So there's a point here that I think needs to be brought up. Christ was the perfect sacrifice because he didn't have any sin. Because if he did, he'd have to die for his own sin. And since he had no sin, he was he then could die for the sins of the rest of us. Okay, let's say that God created a new man who wasn't the Word, just another man, Adam 2, perfect, sinless, saves him and sacrifices him.

Would that have satisfied God? Do you understand the scenario I just laid out? Well, He created him. God said, well, I'm going to create another man. I'm going to build a new one, a new pile of dirt, I'm going to breathe in his nostrils, and he's going to be a perfect man, and I'm going to make sure that he doesn't mess up on the way to the cross, and I'm going to sacrifice him. Would that have satisfied God?"

Answer, no. Why not? Because in order to satisfy the offense made against God, you've got to be God to do it. In other words, if my dog bites George in the leg, and George says, you've got to satisfy me about that, so I shoot the dog. Does that satisfy George? No, because I have to satisfy him. We're the same level of creation. God, because he's offended, can only be satisfied by someone who's God. That's why he has to supply his own lamb, because he's the offended one.

Does that make sense? In other words, when we use this 25 cent word, propitiation, that word means that God has totally been satisfied about the sin issue because the one that paid the price was of the same level, for lack of a better word, as God himself. You see that? So that matters. It really matters who the sacrifice is. Yeah, he has to be holy and blameless, but he's also got to be God. There's God slain of God who can understand it. That's why it has to be that way. Make sense? No? I'm falling behind.

The verses I would refer you to about that is Hebrews 2, 14 through 18. Notice the word sin. Why doesn't this verse say, The next day, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Does your Bible say sin? Singular? It says sins or sin? Singular. Why the use of that word and not sins? It's not only the sins, it's the source.

He's going to deal with the whole thing. You see that? It's not only the actions of the sinner, he's going to deal with the sinner himself. He's going to put sin completely aside. Not only the acts, but the sinner and the question of sin is going to be dealt with, the whole thing. This is he who I said, after me comes a man who is preferred before me.

I did not know him, but he that he should be revealed to Israel. Therefore, I came baptizing with water. And what respected John not know the Lord Jesus because weren't they cousins? How did how did he not know him? Didn't know him as the Lamb of God. I mean, knew my cousin Jesus, but I had no idea that he was the Messiah. He was the Lamb of God. He's the Savior. I had no idea he was the Son of God.

So John bore witness, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and he remained on him. I did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, Upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining on him, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit." So, a redundant question, and what is the difference of the baptism?

That's how he knew. And I would bet that he was surprised when it turned out to be his cousin. I think his whole family, you know, at least early on thought, you know, Jesus has gone off the bridge. What is he doing? You know, James and his brothers. None of his family believed him until after the cross. And I have seen him testify that this is the Son of God. He knew that Jesus was the Son of God because he had been forearmed with the information from the Spirit that if he saw a man who the Spirit was descending on like a dove, this is the one. This is the one. Now, he's a Jew. He needs a sign, doesn't he? All Jews always need signs. Well, here's the sign. The Greeks want wisdom. The Jews want signs. Here's the sign.

So, what are the persons and titles mentioned regarding Jesus from His eternal and divine existence as the Word to His place in the millennium? I'm going to go through them all. He's the King of Israel. He's the Son of Man. He's the Word. He's God. He is Life. He's Light. He's the Word made flesh, He's the Lamb of God, and He's the Son of God in this world.

So, last question. What work does He do? Atoning work. Expand on that a little bit. Complete removal. That's right. He's here to accomplish that job. His job is to take the sins of the world away from the world before God. That's what he's here to do. Alright, I made it. This closes the revelation of his person and work.

Now next week when we start in, it's interesting just in 34 verses, all of this is laid out. I mean, they're very compact verses. Now, next week we're going to talk a lot about, kind of, he starts to get on with his ministry. Things begin to happen and the focus goes from John the Baptist to the Lord Jesus. Let's close.

Our dear Father, how we thank You for Your Word and how we thank You for Your Spirit that through Your Word reveals the very person of Your Son, the Lord Jesus, and that He did come from the bosom of the Father. And we thank You, we pray in His precious name. Amen.