1. It was immediately connected with the appearance of the Word in the flesh.
2. It was of God. And as His mission so his name.
3. It had as its special end to testify of Christ.
4. Its aim was to bring sinners to believe in Christ. This was not merely God’s intention, but his own desire. All true ministers have the same object.
5. It contemplated “all” to whom he addressed himself.
II. THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN CHRIST AND JOHN.
1. A current error was corrected. Men thought John the Christ. He confessed himself only the friend of the Bridegroom, the witness-bearer of the Light.
2. This correction vindicated the proper glory of Christ. All honour to the witness, but the glory of the light cannot be given to another.
3. In the marked distinction between the forerunner and Him “who coming after him was preferred before him,” overweening thoughts of mere instruments, however valuable, are reproved.
4. John’s honour consisted in his proclamation of his Master’s glory. Nor was this honour denied him. Ministers are esteemed for their works’ sake.
5. The distinction in Christ’s case from John and all His ministers is that He is “the true Light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.” (A. Beith, D. D.)
The mission of John and of Christ
I. THE TRUE NATURE OF A CHRISTIAN MINISTER’S OFFICE.
1. Ministers are not priests or mediators.
2. They are not agents into whose hands men may commit their souls, and carry on their religion by deputy.
3. They are witnesses (Act_1:8; Act_2:40; Act_20:21).
II. ONE PRINCIPAL POSITION WHICH OUR LORD OCCUPIES TOWARDS MANKIND. As light.
1. He is the centre and source of all spiritual illumination, warmth, life, health, growth, beauty, and fertility.
2. He shines for the common benefit of mankind--for high and low, rich and poor, Jew and Greek.
3. He is free to all.
III. THE DESPERATE WICKEDNESS OF MAN’S NATURAL HEART.
1. Christ was in the world invisibly long before He was born Col_1:17). Yet He was neither known nor honoured.
2. But Christ came visibly into the world when He was born at Bethlehem and fared no better. His own rejected Him.
IV. THE VAST PRIVILEGES OF ALL WHO RECEIVE CHRIST AND BELIEVE ON HIM.
1. The privileges are those of children.
2. These privileges are to be possessed by faith (Gal_3:26).
3. Are we sons of God? Have we the marks of Sonship.
4. Do we desire to be sons of God? Then we must receive Him as Saviour. (Bp. Ryle.)
The ministry of men
I. A special way whereby Christ shineth to the world, and helpeth the world to know Him, is the MINISTRY OF MEN; whereby
1. He condescendeth to our weakness, who could not endure more glorious instruments.
2. Trieth our obedience and acknowledgment of His authority in the weak messengers.
3. Maketh manifest that the excellency of the power whereby they do so great things is of Him.
II. MINISTERS OF CHRIST MUST NOT RUN UNSENT, but ought to have a calling from God, either extraordinary (in extraordinary times and cases) or ordinary; as being that which will afford them matter of courage in undertaking their work, of comfort under difficulties, and of hope of success; for so John was a man sent from God; to wit, in an extraordinary way, as Christ’s forerunner.
III. MINISTERS WILL IN A MOST LIVELY WAY PROCLAIM THAT GRACE OF GOD BRINGING SALVATION WHO HAVE THEMSELVES OBTAINED GRACE AND FAVOUR BY IT. And it is a sweet thing when men prove answerable to these names and titles which Scripture giveth them because of their Christian profession; for this forerunner’s name was John, a name given by the angel, which signifieth one to whom the Lord had been gracious that he might actively proclaim the same to others, and a name to which John’s carriage was answerable.
IV. THE CHIEF AND SPECIAL END OF A MINISTRY, is to point out Christ in His excellences and usefulness to lost men, to declare Him in His person, offices, and benefits, how He should be believed in, served or suffered for; John came to bear witness of Christ in His glorious excellency, and as He is the light of dark man, in his comforts and directions.
V. MINISTERS ARE TO PREACH CHRIST WITH PLAINNESS AND FIDELITY in not adding or diminishing with boldness and constancy.
VI. THE END AND SCOPE OF A MINISTER’S WITNESSING and preaching, is, and should be, to bring self-condemned sinners to believe in Christ; his preaching of the law and wrath is in order to that, and to bring men to see their need of Christ, and should be joined with the doctrine of the gospel; his preaching of the doctrine of sanctification and holiness should be joined with the doctrine of faith in Christ, from whom virtue floweth for that end. (G. Hutcheson.)
The witness of the Light
I. His APPEARANCE. “There came”--suggesting origination, commencement, dependence, mutability, decay, in opposition to the Word whose creature He was (verse: 3).
II. His NATURE. “A man.” Parted from the Word who was God: although honoured by the near relationship in which he stood to the Word as instrument, minister, herald, and forerunner.
III. His NAME. “Jehovah is gracious”--a fitting designation of one whose birth was a gift of grace (Luk_1:18), whose manhood was the flower and fruit of grace (Luk_1:80), and whose life work was to be a publisher of grace (Luk_1:76).
IV. His MISSION.
1. In its character, prophetic.
2. In its authority, Divine.
3. In its work, witness-bearing.
4. In its object, saving.
V. His RELATION TO THE LIGHT.
1. Negatively.
2. Positively (Joh_1:8). (T. Whitelaw, D. D.)
The personality of John
I image to myself a man of calm, saintly look, with eyes that seemed, to pierce the invisible, moving men not by his wild gesticulations, but by the deep solemnity of his spirit, the simple, fearless truth he spoke, and his appeal to the Messianic longings and hopes which then prevailed. Withdrawn from the luxurious world, with its enervating and selfish influences, he had lived to the age of thirty among the mountains west of the Dead Sea, preparing in solitude for the brief but great work of his life. He is, however, no hermit cut off from his fellowmen and taking no interest in their affairs, but a keen observer and discerner; and at the appointed hour he steps suddenly forward, crying to the nation, “Repent,” “Behold the Lamb of God!” (J. Culross, D. D.)
The character of John
The Baptist was characterized by
I. STRENGTH. If ever there was a man unlike the little reed that gives itself to be tossed by the wind (Mat_11:7) it was John. Your strong man is self-conscious. He has presided over the slow and painful elaboration of his character. He has looked on with satisfaction at the stiffening of his moral fibre into steel, and knows what it is worth. Humility has never been a feature of strong Jewish natures. Yet this strong man says, “He that cometh after me is stronger (
éó÷õñḯôåñïò
) than I.”
II. INDEPENDENCE. Yet like David in God’s presence declaring, “I will be base in my own sight,” so the Baptist exclaims, “Whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose.”
III. Above all, PURITY. An effective moral teacher must in purity of manhood stand upright. Never could he have brought men to repentance if he had not himself repented. The words “generation of vipers” would have been a mere scream of impotent rage if he had not crushed the serpent in his own heart. Yet, in the presence of Jesus, that pure soul seems black like the waters of a mountain lake in the neighbourhood of the newly fallen snow. The baptism of water he knew; of the baptism of fire, searching and sifting to the marrow, he recognized the need--“I have need to be baptized of Thee.” (Bp. Alexander.)
