July 1, See Jesus
The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”
John 1:29
Allow me to introduce you to Jesus. Know Him for Who He truly is!
The opening of the fourth Gospel of the New Testament presents the narrative of John the Baptist– the New Testament prophet and forerunner of Jesus who was preaching repentance and salvation in the name of Jesus Christ and baptizing those who professed their faith in the coming Messiah. Many of the religious leaders of that day (Priests and Levites – caretakers of the Temple) questioned John’s identity, for to them he appeared strange, radical, and one who seemed difficult to determine. Some thought him to be Elijah, for many perhaps were familiar with prophecies from Malachi that announced God would send Elijah to preach repentance (and they likely presumed Elijah could have been brought back by God – Malachi 4:5-6.) John denied this and all other suggested identities except one: “the voice of one crying in the wilderness to make straight the way of the Lord.” (Isaiah 40:3)
The religious leaders argued as to whether John should be baptizing repentant believers, for he had no messianic or prophetic notoriety (John 1:24). But on the following day, while continuing his role of preaching and baptizing, John saw Jesus approaching. (While we are not told who rejoined the scene, we can be sure the audience was much like the audience of the previous day: repentant believers as well as the religiously zealous.) One may speculate that John the Baptist knew Jesus outside of the prophetic picture, because he and Jesus were after all, second cousins. Therefore, when we read that John saw Jesus (John 1:29), we understand that most probably there was up to this point only a human recognition. But, on this day, with religious leaders standing around gawking at this strange wilderness prophet baptizing people, the forerunner of the Messiah viewed Jesus for who He truly is, and shouted out: “BEHOLD THE LAMB OF GOD THAT TAKES AWAY THE SIN OF THE WORLD.” This divine revelation to John’s heart commenced not only a repeated announcement to followers of his own preaching (verse 36), but also was used by God to stir the hearts of those who would become Jesus’ first disciples (verse 40).
Today, the church stands in need of hearing this same message. We stand in need of having our view of Jesus revitalized. At times, we become inundated with other things that can easily cloud out the main point of all that is related to Christian faith and church life – JESUS.
Corrie Ten Boon once observed, “if the devil cannot make us bad, he will make us busy.” Sometimes we can become so busy doing our religious stuff that we cool in our embrace of the true identity of Jesus Christ. (This was the case for the Ephesus church recorded in Revelation 2 who “left their first love”). So, with repentant hearts over our own neglect of keeping Jesus central to our lives, may we listen to John the Baptist’s proclamation of the Messiah so that our hearts are once again stirred in the direction God desires – centered on Christ and His gospel:
“BEHOLD THE LAMB OF GOD THAT TAKES AWAY THE SIN OF THE WORLD.”
Blessings.
READ
Read John 1:19-36 and rejoice as one who has met Jesus!