Below is my sermon outline, video and 90 Second Sermon Summary for my December 13 2020 sermon for the 3rd Sunday of Advent.
The Lesson was John 1:6-8, 19-28.
Everything and everyone in the Gospel of John points to Jesus Christ. That includes John, who should be called “the Testifier,” rather than “the Baptizer.”
Grace, peace, & mercy to you from God, our Creator, our Christ, & our Counselor. AMEN.
· We all try to take our credibility and connect it with someone or something.
o The question is, for whose benefit?
o It is most obvious with what you wear. Maybe not if you’re in your Sunday best, but if you are viewing this at home as it snows in Oklahoma City, you might have on a sweatshirt. If you do, what does it have on it?
§ Does it have the name of a university or a sports team? Maybe a cause you support? Does it make reference to something in pop culture, a TV show, movie, musical group?
§ What about the hat you’ll put on to shovel or brush off the snow? What logo will be on the front? A sports team, a product perhaps?
§ What about the accessories in your life? Which logos are made into the product to broadcast the type of computer or cellphone you are using, or who made your purse or backpack?
§ When you clear off the snow from your car, what stickers will be revealed? Will they show from where you are an alumnus, or what school your child is on the honor roll at? Will it reveal your political preference or hometown pride?
o These and other things are subtle ways that we lend our credibility to others, and use their credibility to boost our own.
§ If you see someone referencing a TV show or movie you like, you are more likely to think better of them than you did before.
· You see someone you admire using a certain product, and you think, maybe I should use that product as well.
§ It is the whole theory behind advertising. Take something or someone the public thinks well of and connect someone or something to that, and hopefully the admiration will transfer.
· A heroic person endorses a product. People think well, if they think it’s good, let me try it out.
· This is what happens throughout John’s Gospel.
o Each Gospel has its own perspectives and preferences, but it is more obvious and important to understand in John’s Gospel.
§ John’s Gospel focuses on Jesus and on the Creator.
§ Everything and everyone in John’s Gospel is included to point to or point out that Jesus is the Son of God, sent into our World by the Creator.
· Everything Jesus says and does are included to point to or point out the love, grace and mercy shown to humanity by the Creator who sent the Son, knowing the Son would not be received by those to whom He was sent.
· An example of the focus of John (the Gospel writer) is that the miraculous things Jesus does in John’s Gospel are not called miracles; they are signs because they point to Jesus.
· This is best illustrated by how John (the Gospel writer) treats John (the Baptizer) in this part of his Gospel.
o John (the Gospel writer) does not even give John (the Baptizer) his title of “the Baptizer.”
o John (the Baptizer) actually doesn’t baptize anyone in John (the Gospel writer)’s Gospel, let alone baptize Jesus.
§ Don‘t believe me? Read right after this lesson, starting with verse 29.
§ John (the Baptizer) describes the Spirit coming on Jesus like a dove. But there is no description of Jesus being baptized.
· Someone baptizing Jesus would bring attention to them, and take the focus away from Jesus.
o The only purpose John (the Baptizer) serves in John (the Gospel writer)’s Gospel is to testify to whom Jesus is. Remember how he is described.
§ There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. [a]
§ He says he is not the Messiah, but the one preparing the way of the Lord. He isn’t worthy to even tie the sandals of the one who is coming.
§ John (the Baptizer) has drawn all of this attention to himself with him baptism ministry, but it is only so he can focus everyone’s attention on the one who is coming.
· Imagine someone running around, doing all kinds of things to get people to pay attention to them, to get people talking about them, then, when everyone is focused on them, they say, “Now, let me introduce …”
· That is John (the Baptizer)’s role. To get attention, and then to point to something or someone else. To testify about Jesus.
· So, what is your role? What are you created and called to point to, to testify about?
o It is to share your understanding of God’s love and God’s grace with those in your life.
§ How has God made a difference in your life? What has God done for or to you?
§ How does God sending the Son, Jesus Christ, to become one of us, to take up life as a man, and after all that he did and all that he taught, for him to suffer and be executed to show us that not even crucifying the Son of God can stop God from loving us? How does his resurrection, his defeat of death and his erasure of our sin impact you on a daily basis?
§ How do the blessings God has given you shape your life and guide you how to treat others?
§ How have the lives and lessons of the saints placed in your life; your parents, grandparents, siblings, cousins, friends, neighbors, church members, how have they modeled how to live a Christian life? What did the teach you? What lessons have you learned?
o Now, how do you express that?
§ You do it in how you live your life; the things you do and the things you don’t do, the people you care for and connect with, and the ones who you don’t connect with, the causes and efforts you champion and those you don’t participate in.
§ You do it with what you share of your life with others. You do it with the stories you tell, the insights and glimpses into your life that you let others have.
§ You do it by being willing to tell people what your faith means to you.
· And this is by far the hardest thing to do.
· To tell people what you get out of attending worship services, volunteering to help at the church, being involved in whatever project we have going on next is difficult to do because you are speaking about truly personal matters.
o But that is part of what we are called to do as Christians.
o Because it isn’t about us and our stature, it is about Christ and what he has done for us.
o Our calling is to point to the One Who Has Come Into The World, the one whose sandals we are not fit to tie.
o As we move further down the road of becoming One Church Together, we are going to have to share why we think it is important to blend our three communities with others inside these communities, to help them see what we hope will be possible.
§ We need to be a witness to testify to the promise of hope so that people may believe, or at least give a chance to our vision.
§ We are all called to testify to the light that is Jesus Christ.
AMEN.
[a] John 1.6-8.
Gospel + John 1:6-8, 19-28
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