THE GOSPEL OF JOHN
JOHN THE BAPTIST
DR. JIM DIXON
MARCH 15, 1987
JOHN 1:19-34
Throughout history, there are very few men and women who have received the title “the Great.” In the sixth century BC, there was Cyrus the Great. The king of the Medo-Persian Empire, it was Cyrus the Great that conquered the Babylonian Empire and freed the Jews to return to their homeland. In the fourth century BC, there was Alexander the Great, the Macedonian king who conquered much of the civilized world and ruled the Greek Empire. In the fourth century AD, there was Constantine the Great, the first Roman emperor to embrace Christianity. Constantine the Great made Christianity the religion of the empire. He expanded the boundaries of the empire. He built the beautiful and royal city of Constantinople, and he named it after himself.
In the latter portion of the eighth century and at the beginning of the ninth century, there was Charles the First, better known as Charlamagne, which means Charles the Great. He was the very first emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. He was called the greatest ruler of the Middle Ages and was crowned emperor on Christmas Day, 800 AD, by Pope Leo III. Then in the ninth century there was Alfred the Great, perhaps the greatest king and greatest ruler in the history of Britain. It was Alfred the Great who laid the basis for a united England and ushered in a new age of learning and literature. In the 10th century, there was Otto the Great, king of Germany, king of Italy, and Holy Roman Emperor.
In the 13th century there was Frederick the Great, not to be confused with the Prussian Frederick of the 18th century also called “The Great.” This Frederick was Holy Roman Emperor. It was said that he was the greatest ruler of the latter Middle Ages. He was a brilliant administrator, a brilliant military strategist, and the greatest scientist of his time. He was called stupor mundi, “the amazement of the world.” In the latter portion of the 15th century and early in the 16th century there was Ivan the Great. Perhaps Ivan the Great was not so famous as Ivan the Terrible, but it was Ivan the Great who laid the foundation for a united Russia and Ivan the Great who freed Russia from 250 years of oppression by the Tartars. Then in the 17th century and early in the 18th century there was of course Peter the Great, the greatest ruler in the history of Russia. It was Peter the Great who made Russia a world power.
Finally, later in the 18th century, there1 was Catherine the Great, the German princess who became empress of Russia. She expanded the boundaries of Russia and modernized its government. She’s considered one of the greatest monarchs, one of the greatest rulers of history. Very few of these people were called “the Great” while yet they lived. It was subsequent generations that gave them the title “the Great” when looking at the accomplishments of their lives. And of course, historians have called many other people great, though they may not have been titled “the Great”—from Julius Caesar to Napoleon, from George Washington to Abraham Lincoln, from Queen Victoria to Winston Churchill. There have been people throughout history called great by mankind. But have you ever wondered who is great in the sight of God? Have you ever wondered what makes for greatness in the sight of God? Who does God call great? There is a fascinating statement, an amazing statement, in the seventh chapter of the Gospel of Luke. Our Lord Jesus Christ said of John the Baptist, “Of all men born of women, truly, truly, I say to you, none are greater than John the Baptist.” What made John great in the sight of God? Two things made him great, and these comprise our two teachings this morning.
First of all, John the Baptist was great because, you see, he humbled himself before God. If you would be great, if you would have God call you great, then you must, before all else, humble yourself before God. The Bible says God opposes the proud and He gives grace to the humble. Nicholas Copernicus was born in the town of Torún in a country now called Poland in the year 1473. By all accounts, he was brilliant. He attended the University of Ferrara, where he received his doctorate in law. He attended the University of Padua, where he received his doctorate in medicine. He was the greatest scientist of his time, and today he has been called the very founder of modern astronomy. His theory of the universe changed the thinking of the world. His theory of the universe is today called the Copernican Theory and it is accepted all over the Earth. It was the theories of Nicholas Copernicus that ultimately enabled Galileo to invent the telescope. It was the theories of Nicholas Copernicus that ultimately enabled Isaac Newton to understand the laws of gravity. The theories of Copernicus were put forth in a book published in the year 1543, and that book shook the world. Copernicus died shortly thereafter. The world had thought that the Earth was the center of the universe, and that was the pride of the Earth. The pride of mankind was that we were in the center, with everything revolving around us. Ptolemy had taught that centuries earlier, and it had been accepted for millennia that we were in the center of the universe.
This is part of what made man great and everybody accepted it and we had pride in that. But suddenly Copernicus said, “No, the Earth is not in the center of the universe. In fact, the Earth is simply a planet, one of many planets revolving around the sun. And the sun is one of many stars.” And suddenly we had a whole different concept of ourselves and we began to realize that this Earth is just a little dot, just a little dot in the cosmos in one little corner of our galaxy with billions of stars in our galaxy and billions more planets going around those stars. We’re just one little dot, and then there is billions of galaxies and we’re just a speck in all that. Our lives on this little dot are just vapors—vapors that appear for a short time and then pass away. It introduced a whole different concept of man. Our pride was offended and Copernicus was in a whole lot of trouble.
Shortly after Copernicus’s death, his book was removed from publication and banned from the Earth. He was denounced by society, by the church, and by the scientific community because he had offended the pride of man. And yet, Copernicus himself said, “I only wanted to reveal the truth.” He said, “Really all the truth shows is that God is greater than we thought and man is lesser than we thought, and it’s all meant,” Copernicus said, “to make us humble in the sight of God and to marvel at the fact that, specks though we are, he still loves us.” You see, Copernicus was a devout Christian and he was among the most humble people in the world. And before he died, he chose the words that would go on his gravestone. You can see those words on his gravestone today, and the words are these: “I do not desire the grace given to Paul. I do not desire the grace given to Peter. I only desire the mercy shown the thief on Calvary’s cross.” He was called great by the world. Perhaps he was greater in the sight of God because truly in his heart he humbled himself. He knew that he was but a speck on a dot in the universe. His life was but a vapor, and yet he knew that he was precious to God. He knew that he was a sinner and that he was fallen and desperately in need of God’s mercy and grace. And for that, he was great.
David was great. That’s why in the eighth Psalm David said, “Oh Lord, our Lord, how majestic is Thy name in all the earth. When I consider the heavens, the work of Thy hands, the sun and the moon, which Thou hast established, what is man that Thou art mindful of him, mere man that Thou cares for him?” You see, David was humble and he knew his place in the universe and he knew he was fallen. And time and again, we see him cry out for God’s mercy and grace. Humble thyself. And yet the Bible would have us to understand and God would have us to understand that no one was more humble than John the Baptist.
You know, when first we look at John the Baptist, he seems kind of strange, a wild and crazy guy. He didn’t live like most people lived. He didn’t live in a house like most people lived. In fact, he didn’t live in a house at all. He lived in the wilderness and he didn’t live in just any wilderness. He lived in perhaps the worst wilderness in the world, between Judea and the Dead Sea (called Yeshimon in the Hebrew, which means “the devastation”), a limestone desert so hot that the ancient Hebrews believed there were actually fires beneath it. He lived there and didn’t wear normal clothes. He could have worn royal purple or he could have laden his body with gold and jewelry. He could have worn silk or linen. He didn’t. He wore rugged clothes made out of camel’s hair and an old leather belt.
He didn’t eat normal food. He didn’t eat food you and I would like to eat. In fact, the Bible says he ate locus and wild honey. The Greek word for locus sometimes refers to a type of soybean, but most of the time it referred to the animal. He ate them. As people who ate locust did, he’d take the wings off and the legs off and the head off and he’d eat what remained. He would eat it raw or he would let it dry in the desert sun. Believe it or not, it conformed with the Levitical dietary laws, though very few people ate them.
And we are told he ate wild honey. The Greek word for honey sometimes referred to the sweet nectar that came from grapes and from berries, and other times referred to the sap that came from trees. Most often it referred to the sticky sweet substance that came from bees. That’s what John ate when he ate. But the Bible says much of the time he simply fasted. And why did he do these things? Because, like all the prophets of old, he longed to humble himself before God with a contrite heart. Because John the Baptist knew that he had no power in and of himself. He longed for the power of God and he longed for the righteousness of God. He longed for the greatness of God and he humbled himself before God daily. He was great.
You know, there’s a statement that John the Baptist made that perhaps is not fully understood. Speaking of Jesus Christ, John said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” Speaking of Jesus Christ, John said, “He who comes after me ranks before me, for He was before me.” And then he said of Jesus Christ, “The thong of His sandal I am not worthy to untie.” You know, in that culture and in that time, only a slave would remove the sandal from a person’s foot. It was a dirty job. The sandals were dirty, they wore no socks, and their feet were dirty. It was said that a disciple could do almost anything for his master. Almost anything a slave would do, a disciple could do for his master in the Jewish tradition. But there was one thing a disciple could not do for his master because it was just too low, and that was remove the thong of the sandal. Only a slave could do that, and John was saying, “I’m not even worthy to do that.” With reference to Jesus Christ, he said, “I’m not worthy to be His slave.” And it’s that humility that in the sight of God made John great.
Everybody who is great in the sight of God, all the apostles, they all humbled themselves in service before Christ. They all call themselves slaves of Christ, doulos. Paul always begins his writings saying, “Paul, a slave of Jesus Christ.” And Peter says, “Peter, a slave of Jesus Christ.” Jude says, “Jude, a slave of Jesus Christ.” John calls himself a slave of Jesus Christ. That is humility before God. The truth is that if we would humble ourselves before God in service to Him, we would begin to serve other people as well. And that’ll make us great.
There’s a story we’re told in the ninth chapter of Mark. Jesus and the disciples entered the gates of Capernaum and the disciples had been walking behind Jesus and they’d been talking. And Jesus turned to them and he said, “What were you talking about?” And the disciples were silent because they were embarrassed and didn’t want Him to know what they had been talking about. But He knew they’d been talking about who was the greatest; which of the disciples were the greatest; who would be the greatest in this life; who’d be the greatest in the life to come; who is the greatest. And so Jesus said to them, “He who would be the greatest among you must be the servant of all. He who would be the first among you must be the slave of all, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and give His life as a ransom for many.”
Then Jesus took a little child, we’re told in the ninth chapter, and held the little child in His arms in the presence of the disciples. And He said, “If you’d be great, you must humble yourself like a little child.” Do you want to be great? Do you want to be great in the sight of God? The only way that can happen is if we would humble ourselves before the Lord.
Well, secondly, we’re told that if we would be great (and this is the last example of greatness from the life of John) we must exalt Christ. We must humble ourselves and we must exalt Christ. If you would be great in the sight of God, then you must humble yourself and you must exalt the Son of God. The only way God will ever view any of us as great is if we exalt His Son—humble ourselves and exalt His Son. That is why John the Baptist said, “I must decrease, but He, Jesus Christ, much increase.”
You know, I don’t think we realize how great John was in the sight of the members of his community, among the people of his day. We don’t realize this because John seems kind of strange to us. His lifestyle seemed strange: the clothes he wore, the things he ate, and the place he lived all seemed strange. But in his day, he was viewed as great. There hadn’t been a prophet in hundreds of years, and suddenly there came John from the desert, bigger than life. It was a male-dominated world, and he was a man’s man, and he was a man above men. He was bold and he was strong and he was a leader. He called the masses to righteousness and he spoke the truth and he stood against kings and they marveled. The multitudes gathered, and his fame was all over Palestine. He was great in the sight of people.
That’s why the masses came up to him and said, “Are you the Christ? Are you the Messiah?” You see, some of the Jewish community thought that the Messiah would usher in global peace. Others thought the Messiah would usher in global righteousness. Most of the masses were looking for a Messiah who would be a national champion, the king of the Jews, and deliver them. The Jews had been oppressed for the better part of 800 years by the Assyrians and by the Babylonians and the Medo-Persians and the Greeks and the Romans. So they were looking for a king to deliver them. So great was John that they thought maybe this was the guy and they asked, “Are you the Christ? Are you the Messiah?” He was that great in their mind. But he said, “No.” And they said, “Well, are you Elijah, the greatest prophet in the history of the Jews?” In the ninth century before Christ, it was Elijah who came from the desert. Mysteriously, they didn’t know his background.
Elijah challenged the oppressors. He rebuked the lofty, he championed the cause of the common people. He performed miracles, and ultimately he vanished into heaven in a fiery chariot. This was quite a guy, the greatest prophet in history. And in accordance with Malachi chapter four, verse five, some of the Jews thought that Elijah would return bodily in person before the close of the age. And they thought maybe John was the guy. So, because he was so great, they asked, “Are you Elijah?” And John said, “No.” And they said, “Well, are you the Prophet?” And they weren’t thinking of just any prophet. They were thinking of a Prophet who had not yet appeared on the Earth, the Prophet of Prophets, the Prophet par excellence mentioned in the 18th chapter of Deuteronomy. The Prophet of whom the Lord said, “I will raise up from among your midst and I’ll put My words in His mouth and you will obey or die.” They were thinking of the prophet long awaited. It was part of the Messianic portrait, but the people thought a separate individual was being mentioned, and they thought John was that person because he seemed so great. “Who are you?” they said, and John said, “I’m the voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the path of the Lord.’”
You see, in that culture and in that time, whenever a king would visit a city, whenever a king would visit a village, whether it was in Palestine or anywhere in the Greek or Roman Empire, the people, when they knew the king was coming, would prepare the path. They would clear the way. They’d take all the stones off the road, anything that would encumber him, they would prepare it. And that was called making straight the path of the lord or the king. John was saying, “All I am is a voice crying in the wilderness, preparing the way for the king.” That’s why John said, “I must decrease, He must increase.” He was great in the eyes of the people, but he had one purpose in life, and that was exalting the Son of God, Jesus Christ. And that’s why he was great.
If you would be great in the sight of God, then in every single relationship—every one— of your life you must seek to exalt Christ. And if you’re the center of anybody’s life, something’s wrong. You must decrease and He must increase, because that’s the key to greatness. Only Christ is worthy of being at the center of a person’s life. You know, about a month ago, we went to see Johnny Carson in Burbank on the Tonight Show. He’s been on TV for, I don’t know, 25 years. I’d never been to a Carson show, though I lived near Burbank for many years. And so this was kind of a special time for Barb and I and Denise and Lambs and Dick and Marcia. We were sitting high up in the audience area and, you know, before Johnny Carson goes on TV, before he ever comes out, Ed McMahon comes. He just kind of comes out to prepare the path before they’re ready to light up the cameras. Before you ever see Carson on TV, there’s Ed McMahon down on the stage talking to the audience. And he’s just there to kind of prepare us. And he asks us questions and he jokes around a little bit. He’s bigger than life and he does a great job. But ultimately he knows he’s not going to be the center of attention. He has to decrease in order that someone else might increase. And ultimately he says, “Here’s Johnny,” though he says it a little differently.
See, John the Baptist was like that with respect to Jesus Christ. And that’s what we’re called to be like with respect to Jesus Christ if we would be great. Sometimes you hear Christians talking about ministers—sometimes I hear people talk about Charles Swindoll or James Dobson or Jimmy Swaggart or somebody else. And sometimes it almost sounds like they’ve made such people the very center of their lives. They speak of them in that way.
Sometimes people who are in local churches talk about their pastors in that way, and that can be a horrible tragedy. I mean, if any of you (and this would seem incomprehensible) have Bob or I in the center of your life, something is horribly wrong. We just don’t belong there. Only Jesus Christ is worthy of being there in the center of my life or the center of your life. Our whole purpose is to prepare the path of the Lord for you, that you might grow to love Christ and He would increase and we would decrease. Otherwise, we’ve failed. That’s true of you and your relationships with people too—every one of your relationships. You know, as a church, we seek to exalt Christ. In our missions program, we seek to exalt Christ. If there’s any cause that comes to us and says they want our support, we ask this question: “Are you exalting Christ?” Because we want be a great church, we must humble ourselves and exalt Christ. Sometimes people come to us and they say, “Well, we give to the poor and we give to the needy, we help the oppressed.” And that’s great. But if they want our support in the midst of it, they must exalt Christ. Otherwise, it’s just humanism and man gets the glory. But somehow the name of Christ must be lifted up. He must be exalted. And that’s the key to greatness. And that’s the key to greatness in your life and mine.
In conclusion, in 1923 in the town of Belgrade there was born a man called Peter. Peter II was what he was really called. He was born in a country that was called the Kingdom of the Serbs, the Croats, and the Slovenes, which is kind of a strange name for a country. Peter was destined for the throne. In fact, he was to spend his whole life on a quest for the throne. His father was Alexander I, king of the Kingdom of the Serbs, the Croats, and the Slovenes. Well, in 1934, Alexander I decided to change the name of the country, and we can understand that. He decided to call the country Yugoslavia. The Croatians didn’t like that, and they didn’t like Alexander I, and they assassinated him.
So there was Peter ,11 years old, his father dead. Suddenly he was king. He had longed for this. This was the desire of his life. But the people decided he was too young to be placed on the throne, and so though he was king, he was not given the throne. They gave the throne to Peter’s father’s cousin, whose name was Prince Paul. Prince Paul came to the throne and Peter was enraged and horribly disappointed. He wanted the throne so bad. Well, in 1941, prince Paul made a horrible mistake. He signed an agreement with Adolf Hitler and Mussolini, and the people were enraged. Prince Paul was cast down, and finally, at the age of 17, Peter came to the throne. This was his moment. He was on the throne. It was March 25th, 1941. But 11 days later, on April 6th, Germany came into Yugoslavia. Peter fled the throne.
He fled to England, where he set up a government in exile. He was now a king, but in exile. He had nothing else to do, so he joined the British Royal Air Force. But he longed for the war to be over so he could return to the throne. But after World War II, the British government didn’t support King Peter. Instead they supported the reconstructionist government of Marshal Tito. Suddenly, Peter was a king without a country. He couldn’t go back. He’d spent the rest of his life wanting to go back and sit on that throne and not being able to. He lived the rest of his life in Monte Carlo and in Paris, and then ultimately in the United States. He took a public relations job in New York City and he took a job for a savings and loan association in California. He tried to build a financial empire. He wanted some kind of a throne, but it wasn’t meant to be. Peter II died on November 4th, 1970, right here in Denver, Colorado, and he’s buried in the Serbian church monastery in Libertyville, Illinois. He is the only European monarch, the only European king, ever to be buried on American soil. Each and every one of us are just like King Peter. Each and every one of us, psychologists tell us, are looking for a throne.
That’s what Nietzsche referred to when he spoke of the will to power. We’re all looking for a throne. We’re all trying to build a kingdom, that’s what we’re told. Some people give their whole life in a quest for a kingdom. It might be a financial kingdom, something in the realm of business. It might be a social kingdom, or it might even be in the context of the church. But we want to sit on a throne. We think (because the world told us) that that’s the key to greatness: building your own kingdom. It’s a horrible mistake. And it’s the philosophy of Satan. For it was Satan who, in the beginning, said, “I shall ascend above the stars of God and I shall set my throne on high.” But he has infiltrated the thinking of the world. But, you see, the thinking of God is the opposite. God says, “If you want to be great, you don’t build your throne and you don’t build your kingdom. You build the kingdom of My Son.” If you want to be great, you serve the kingdom of Jesus Christ. That’s why Jesus Christ said, “Seek first My kingdom. I’ll give you everything you need.” So what’s the key to greatness? John tells us, we must humble ourselves and we must exalt Christ. Let’s close in a word of prayer.
Lord Jesus, You are indeed King of Kings, and You are indeed Lord of Lords, and You are the greatest. Lord, we realize that we live on a little speck in the universe, a little dot called Earth, and our lives are but a vapor. We are creatures and You are the Creator. Lord, it boggles our imagination to think that You could love us so much and that we would be infinitely precious to You. Lord, humble us. Help us to be a humble people, broken, knowing we have desperate need of a Savior. Help us to be willing to be Your slaves. And in serving You, help us to serve others that we might be great in Your sight. Lord, help us to exalt You in all that we do, that we wouldn’t seek to build our own kingdoms, but we would labor for the kingdom that is eternal and lives forever—Your kingdom. Dear Lord, we pray these things in Your great and matchless name. Amen.