Do You Know Who You Are?
Notes
Transcript
[VII. Concerning the Church]
[1] It is also taught that at all times there must be and remain one holy, Christian church. It is the assembly of all believers among whom the gospel is purely preached and the holy sacraments are administered according to the gospel. [2] For this is enough for the true unity of the Christian church that there the gospel is preached harmoniously according to a pure understanding and the sacraments are administered in conformity with the divine Word.
Robert Kolb, Timothy J. Wengert, and Charles P. Arand, The Book of Concord: The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2000), 42.
Lord God, bless Your Word wherever it is proclaimed. Make it a Word of power and peace to convert those not yet Your own and to confirm those who have come to saving faith. May Your Word pass from the ear to the heart, from the heart to the lip, and from the lip to the life that, as You have promised, Your Word may achieve the purpose for which You send it, through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.
Who is John Ben Zechariah, known to us as John the Baptist? For starters, he is not the basis, the inspiration, or the foundation of the Baptist Church. He is, biographically speaking, the only child of a priest named Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth, who were blessed by God to have the reproach of childlessness removed by the gift of this child.
In terms of the Missio Dei, the “Mission of God,” John fulfills the next piece in a puzzle that stretches back before the foundation of the world, and reaches forward to the Eschaton - the final event in the Divine Plan. To view it, however, as a straight line is to miss the focus, and many people do.
God’s creative and redemptive work in Creation is not a straight line because the focus of His work is not found at the end, but in the middle - Christ. Everything in God’s work either flows to, or flows from, Christ. John the Baptist is not just another in a long line of God’s spokesmen, he is the forerunner to the focus of God’s Plan before the foundation of the world.
The Church is like John, in that it can also be misunderstood by those who misunderstand the plan of God. The Church does not “Come after” the lief and ministry of Jesus Christ. The church flows out of His life and ministry. Once again, when your focus is other than Christ, it is easy to misunderstand the purpose and role that the Church serves in the Mission of God.
6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. 8 He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.
When the Apostle John wrote these words, he writes in a way that compares and contrasts John with Christ.
In the introduction, we see the distinction between the messenger - John - and the Message - the Word. The Word is the Light, John is not; instead, he bears witness to the Light. This is important to the Apostle, because those who saw and heard both John and Jesus but did not recognize their relationship got it 180 degrees wrong. “According to Josephus, the Jews of the first century held the Baptist in high regard and reckoned him among the just, while they gave Jesus no such esteem and accused him of founding a false religion.”
Later, the Concordia Commentary tells us:
John 1:1–7:1 The Witness of John (Jn 1:19)
The ministry of John the Baptist attracted great attention and generated significant excitement. Josephus reports that “many people came in crowds to him, for they were greatly moved by his words.”
Josephus, Ant. 18.118. Josephus reports further that the army of Herod Antipas was destroyed by Aretas, king of Petra, and that some of the Jews attributed that defeat to God’s displeasure at the death of John at Herod’s hands (18.113–19).
William C. Weinrich, John 1:1–7:1, ed. Dean O. Wenthe and Curtis P. Giese, Concordia Commentary (Saint Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 2015), 147.
John’s ministry had such an impact that the religious leaders in Jerusalem sought clarification:
19 And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” 20 He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ.”
“He confessed and did not deny, but confessed.” If we believe that the text fully conveys the sense of the dialogue, John answers explicitly the question that is implied behind the literal words, “You - who are you?” Are you He to whom the Law and the Prophets bear witness? Are you the One for whom we have waited for generations, the One whom we had either pretty much given up or were looking for alternative explanations that would let God off the hook of having let us down? They had waited for so long, and had been disappointed so much. They didn’t want to get their hopes up, only to have them come crashing down again. So they probe, cautiously, this man who causes people to once again begin to hope in God:
21 And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” And he answered, “No.”
The Baptist’s responses grow shorter and shorter with each question. “I am not the Christ” - 5 words. “I am not” - 3 words. “No” - 1 word.
The delegation sees where this is going, and they become more intense:
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?” 23 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.”
He isn’t in the streets of Jerusalem, he isn’t in the court of the king. He is in the wilderness. We have no indication that John ever went to Jerusalem. To this day, we have no solid information regarding the location of “Bethany across the Jordan.” Origen of Alexandria, a 3rd Century Church Father, quoted from a commentary that was written by a gnostic disciple of Valentinus named Heracleon in 170 AD to suggest that the name of the community was Bethabara (Origen, Commentary 6.204–6, quote 6.204–5 (FC 80:224–25; PG 14:269).
William C. Weinrich, John 1:1–7:1, ed. Dean O. Wenthe and Curtis P. Giese, Concordia Commentary (Saint Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 2015).
Yet, somehow - only God knows - John’s message and ministry made its way into Jerusalem itself. Without a marketing strategy, without a media team, without a logistical structure beyond God’s supply of locusts and wild honey, camel’s hair and a strip of leather, John the son of Zechariah was fulfilling his vocation - the messenger of the Lord, as it is written:
1 “Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts.
One of the amazing things about how God so often works is that, if you don’t have ears to hear, you won’t hear it. If you don’t have eyes to see, you won’t see it. God is so glorious in Himself, that He has no need to call attention by means of showy displays. We want God to bowl us over with overwhelming force, but He chooses instead to lead us by grace through faith. We want to be forced to say “Jesus is Lord” by the sheer weight of His glory, but instead, He chooses to tread so lightly that He will not even break a bruised reed.
As with the plainness of John, the “ordinariness” of Jesus, the Church of Jesus Christ most closely follows in the footsteps of our Lord when we “walk humbly before our God.”
6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.
The means of grace work the same way. The Lutheran Cyclopedia says regarding the subject:
The Lutheran Cyclopedia Grace, Means Of
Grace, Means of, in Luth. usage, indicates the special means or instruments which God has appointed and uses on his part to bestow upon us the blessings of the gospel and the gift of salvation. The expression is used in its most narrow sense, and is limited to the Word of God and the two sacraments of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper.
The Book of Concord Article 4: Concerning the Gospel
[4:] Concerning the Gospel
We now want to return to the gospel, which gives guidance and help against sin in more than one way, because God is extravagantly rich in his grace: first, through the spoken word, in which the forgiveness of sins is preached to the whole world (which is the proper function of the gospel); second, through baptism; third, through the holy Sacrament of the Altar; fourth, through the power of the keys and also through the mutual conversation and consolation of brothers and sisters. Matthew 18[:20*]: “Where two or three are gathered …”129
Dr. Luther writes further:
The Book of Concord Article 5: Concerning Baptism
[5:] Concerning Baptism
[1] Baptism is nothing other than God’s Word in the water, commanded by God’s institution, or, as Paul says, “washing by the Word.” Moreover, Augustine says, “Let the Word be added to the element, and a sacrament results.”
We want more, we expect more. The world wants greatness, but as it is written:
27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, 29 so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.
God chose an old priest and his barren wife to become the parents of His messenger. God chose a young Nazarene girl to become “the mother of my Lord.” God chose a tiny group of people to become His Chosen people:
4 They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. 5 To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.
In the same way God chooses, not the mighty nations, not the persons of influence, but instead, He chooses those whom others thought of as nothing, having no influence, no particular lineage in which they could boast:
22 What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, 23 in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory— 24 even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles? 25 As indeed he says in Hosea, “Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’ and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved.’ ” 26 “And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’ ”
It’s like my standing here before you in these vestments. They don’t make me a called and ordained servant of the Word, neither does that Master’s degree in Theology that sits on my desk. It is the Call of God, extended through His called people, the Church, that makes me what I am by the grace of God. Without that call, I am nothing, having no more authority to minister the Gospel in the Office of the Public Ministry than King Saul had to offer that sacrifice when he doubted that Samuel would come to the people in 1 Sam 13:8-14.
God has called us in Christ, has sealed us in Christ, and has purchased us in Christ. The Bible declares this for our learning and for the increase of our faith in Christ. Our sermons, our songs, hymns, and spiritual songs all remind us of the richness of the grace of God in Christ Jesus our Lord:
“The blood that Jesus shed for me way back on Calvary -
The Blood, it gives me strength, from day to day, it will never lose its power.”
It is the power of the blood that makes the Church the apple of God’s eye. it is the power of the Blood that makes the Church the pillar and ground of the truth. It is the power of the blood, poured out for you for the forgiveness of sins, that justifies us from all of the things that the Law had no power to justify.
Christ came into the world to save sinners. He died and rose again so that we could have eternal life. He went to war against sin and death so that we could have peace. He comes to us through the means of grace so that we could know that we are in Him. He defines who we are, and He says that we, by faith, are His. He is the message, and we, with John, are witnesses of Him.
So let the peace of God, that passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.