Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 40, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 January 1908 — JESUS AND JOHN THE BAPTIST [ARTICLE]

JESUS AND JOHN THE BAPTIST

Sunday School Lesson lor Jan. 12.1908 Specially Arraneed for This Psper

LESSON TEXT.—John 1:19-34. Memory Verses, 29, 30. ' GOLDEN TEXT.—“Behold the Lamb of GtxlvyWUclL taketh away the sin of the worfa.”—John 1:29., TIME.—John the baptist, began to preach in the summer' of A. D. 26, He preached six filbnths before Christ appeared on the' - scene. He continued a year and Three months preaching while Jesus preached; till March A. D. 28/Jesus was baptized January, A- D. 27. His temptation —January jindt February, His. first disciples—in If ebruary. The delegation of the Pharisees—February. I PLACE.—The wilderness of Judea. The baptism of Jesus ai Bethabara, on the east bank of the Jordan. . Comment and Stggestiv* Thdught. John preached tbo tilings that were necessary before one could enter the kingdom of God. . (1) Repentance and confession of sin. (1) A change of conduct that proved the repentance to be sincere. (3) A public profession of this change of life by baptism, essential to the pfooff- of their sincerity, to permanance of the new life, and to power for good. (4) The kingdom of God is at hand. This preaching led people to Ipquire, what does all this mean? Who is coming? What is coming? The Witness of John to Christ.— Vs. 19-34. The Christian wants proof., The issues are too important for credulity. We need to know. The witness of John is repeated, reinforced, more and more clearly, all down the ages. The facts written in the history of 2,000 years confirm his testimony. First. John Witnesses That Jesus Is the Christ, the Son of God. He refused to be called the Messiah. He was merely one who announced his coming. And’ when Jesus returned to Bethabara, John pointed him the people—“ Here is the Messiah. This is the Redeemer from sin. This 1b the man whom God by sure signs made known to me as the Saviour.” There is a great deal of evil In the world yet, in the best of countries, in the best of people. But it is evil fought against. It 16 gaining the viotory slowly but surely. The very revelations of evil, the controversies and conflicts, are signs that the power of Christ U working upon the evil, a never ending conflict till the good has triumphed. *- *Y Second. John Witnesses to Jesus as the Redeemer from Sin. V. 29. “Behold the Lamb of God.” Jesus was so named by John, because the lamb was used in three ways as a symbol of the deliverance which Jesus brought. (1) John and his hearers were familiar with the representation in Isaiah (53:7) of the coming one, “as a lamb led to the slaughter.” (2) Still niore would the Jew think of the Passover lamb as the type and promise of national deliverance. (3) The daily sacrifice of a lamb was continually before the Jews, teaching them the meaning of all the sacrifices, and continually reminding them of’ their need of an atonement for sin. It Is well worth notihg that Jesus died for our sins atthe Passover feast, and at the hour of the daily sacrifice. “Which taketh away the sin of the world.” “To bear away sin is to remove the guilt and punishment of sin by expiation, or to cause that sin be neither imputed nor punished." —Thayer’s Greek-English Lex. (1) The work of Christ is to do this for the whole world till this sinful world Is changed into the .sinless Paradise Regained. (2) Jesus provides redemption for all the world. (3) He pardons past sin, so that it is no longer remembered by him, but Is blotted out forever. (4) He is, In fact, removing sin from the world. Wherever he comes, sin Is in the process of removal from each heart that accepts him, and from the community. Third. The Witness of the Holy Spirit. V. 32. “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him.” He descended not only 9n the manner of a dove, but in bodily shape of a dove (Luke 3:22). This means more than “It was as plain to him that Jesus was possessed by the Spirit as if he had seen the Spirit in a visible shape alighting upon him.” It was necessary for his assurance, and that of the people, that there should be some visible proof of the descent of the Spirit, as there was at Pentecost, and the results proved that the sign was accompanied by reality. It may be that John saw the effects “In the demeanor of Jesus, in his lowliness, and sympathy, and holiness, all of which came to their perfect bloom at and in, his baptism."—Exp. Greek Test. But the sign that accompanied this power was given to reveal the fact, “111 letters that could be rea<te from the stars,” that the invisible Holy Spirit was actually present; to make the fact clear and unmistakable; to show the source whence the power and its effects came.

Practical Points. The Dove expresses the indwelling of Jesus In our hearts, awakening all the gentler, loving, affectionate qualities of religion, sweetness of spirit, gracloußness of feeling and of manner. - Light cannot be hidden. If it coactaa to shine. It ceases to exist. ' The apostle said to the Corinthian Christians, “Te are our epistles , . known and read of all men . . . manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by os, written not with ink, bat wltb the Spirit the living God” [l Cor. US, I). _