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December 21, 1997
RMCC SMW
John 1.6-13
Jesus: The Light that Gives Life
1.What Kind of News is Christmas?
Odd News or God News?
The word “gospel” means “good news.”
Christmas is about really good news.
So what kind of news is Christmas?
Well, that all depends because there are two kinds of news.
One news is the kind that reports something has happened that is completely unexpected, unherald, totally out of the blue.
It surprises us even as it strikes us like lightning.
It can be the sudden news of a loved one’s accidental death, or the news that you just won the state lottery.
A second kind of news, though, reports something has happened that we eagerly expect, that we’ve been told beforehand would happen.
It too surprises us, not like lightning but like graduation day or your wedding day.
Your very knowledge that its coming heightens your surprise when it is here.
\\ To change metaphor, the first kind of news is like hearing that an apple tree was found bearing a pineapple.
The second kind of news is like hearing that the first ripe apple has come on the August orchard.
Two kinds of news that report two kinds of miracles.
The first is the miracle recorded in /Ripley’s/ /Believe it or Not/.
It sends chills up your spine.
It is the miracle of the /odd/.
The second kind of news also records a miracle.
It is the miracle recorded of God’s promises fulfilled.
It is not the miracle of the odd but the miracle of /God/.
Now what do you think most people have an itching ear for: the first or second kind of news?
Yes, you’re right -- it is the miracle of the odd.
And many would think that the news of Christmas, the miracle of God becoming man, is just that -- something odd.
But I contend that it is not odd, it didn’t come like lightning, but it is the news of God.
The news of Christmas is like the news of the first fruit appearing in the Orchard which we have long awaited, which was foretold long ago and those who have listened have eagerly anticipated.
\\ Now you may be asking: What has all this to do with our passage today?
The answer is everything.
Had v.14 followed v.5 we might have thought that Christmas was /odd/ news not /God/ news.
And this apostle knows that talk about Jesus can easily fall into the whirlwind of mysticism and speculation.
John begins his gospel of Jesus in the high and intoxicating stratosphere of eternity “in the beginning was the Word . . .
“ but he no sooner has us mount the heights of heaven than he quickly fastens our thoughts of Jesus to earth, to the solid, bedrock of God’s prophetic word in history.
And how does he do it?
By telling us that Jesus was preceded by John -- the Baptist.
2. Who was John?
The Frame for the Face of Christ
Who was this John?
Listen.
John’s was the frame for the face of Christ.
What do I mean by “fame”?
I’m not thinking of a picture frame, but something more.
Let me give you an illustration.
In your sermon notes you’ll find a picture.
Now what do you see? Oh, some of you say: “I see a ____________” and others of you say, “I see a ________________.”
Yet, I say it is impossible to say for sure what it is a picture of until I /“frame”/ the picture; that is, until I set the picture into its /rightful context/.
And the context of any picture is the context for a word -- it is a story, the Big story.
So if I begin to tell you that this picture is about the story of a funny duck named Quacky I have ruled out your seeing a rabbit.
Or, if I tell you this picture is about Bilbo the bunny then you see only the bunny.
\\ What have I done?
I’ve framed the picture, I’ve given it its rightful context so that you can be sure of what your seeing.
And that is why the apostle John frames the face of Jesus by telling us about the prophet John -- the Baptist.
John the Baptist is shorthand for the Big Story.
John is not merely a prophet, but the last prophet, the spokesman for all the prophets, who gives the final OT witness to Jesus as the Light who gives life.
Let prove my point.
*1] John was a prophet.*
The apostle says *“There came a man who was sent from God; his name was John.”*
What does that mean?
Well, a “man sent from God” is a Jewish way of saying “a prophet of God.”
Of false prophets, God says in Jer.
24.21 *“I did not send these prophets.”*
And of true prophets God says in Jeremiah 7.25 *“. . .
Again and again I /sent/ you my servants the prophets.”
*So John the Baptist is a prophet, a man sent from God.
But he is more.
*2] John is the Last Prophet.*
Jesus himself tells us in Mt. 11.13 *“For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until and /including/ John.” *As the /last/ of the Old Testament prophets John was the /bridge/ between the Old and the New.
With John the Old Testament stops.
And he points to the beginning of the New Testament --ushered in by Christ.
And that is our third point:
\\ *3] John witnessed to Jesus not merely as the Messiah but the Messiah who would usher in a New Age. *All the prophets gave witness to the Christ, but John especially so.
John’s message was not merely that Christ was coming, but that he was coming soon, right after him, and when the Messiah came he would bring in a new era, a new age.
This was not only evident by what John said, but by what he did.
John baptized in the Jordan river.
When we think of the Jordan river, it is to us simply that -- a river and being a river, with water, it is to us the logical and suitable place for John to be to baptize people.
However, if you were a Jew, you would think quite differently about a prophet baptizing people in the Jordan, or in one of the streams that feed the Jordan.
It was not the most practical place to be.
Moreover, if all he needed was water, water could be had anywhere in Palestine.
Why didn’t he choose among the thousands of wells, or the Sea of Galilee, or the Mediterranean Sea if all John wanted was water?
\\ No, any Jew (an anyone who has carefully read the Bible) would soon see that John’s baptizing in the Jordan was a symbolic act of an approaching new era.
How so?
Well, ask yourself: What river did the Jews cross over to enter the promise land?
That’s right -- the Jordan.
And when they did whose authority was transferred?
That’s right -- authority transferred from Moses to Joshua which interestingly enough is Hebrew for Jesus).
But there is more.
What prophet passed on the mantle of his ministry to another?
That’s right -- Elijah to Elisha.
And with mantle in hand, what river did Elisha cross?
Right again -- the Jordan.
So do you see?
The Jordan in the mind of the Jew is the place of new beginnings.
And John the Baptist was heralding a new beginning.
He was gathering a new people to be a New Israel to enter God’s new promises.
He was preparing them to follow a new leader, as Moses pointed to Joshua, and Elijah pointed to Elisha, so John the Baptist pointed ahead to Jesus -- the true, final, and promised light of which all the prophets prophesied.
Do you see now? John frames the face of Jesus.
John (the spokesman for all the prophets before him) says when you look at this picture this is the only story that fit.
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