John the Baptist’s example of Finding Your True Purpose
Your true purpose in life flows not from your abilities, achievements, or circumstances, but from what Jesus Christ does through you. Like John the Baptist, who was considered the greatest prophet not for his own works but because he pointed to Christ, every Christian’s significance comes through letting the Lord minister through them. When we allow Jesus to work through us, He gives spiritual gifts and opportunities that reveal our genuine calling, whether in hospitality, giving, teaching, or helping others. The key outcome of a God given gift is not what we do, but what Christ does through us.
Automatically Generated Transcript
[00:00:00] I had announced this evening that the sermon had a topic about the John the Baptist hack, and that’s because there’s all these medical claims of things that help you if you drink this or practice that, and the cinnamon hack. But how do we understand John the Baptist and the contribution he made, which sits in this first chapter of the Gospel of John, it really stands out. It’s in the middle in between talking about who Jesus was right back, or who the Son of God was right back in the beginning of time and how salvation comes. In verse 6 you can see there was a man sent from God whose name was John. Now the topic I’m trying to answer, continue to answer, was one that I began this morning about how do you know what your purpose is in life?
[00:01:06] How do you know what you’re meant to be and do? And the answer to that is partially in this passage, but in the middle of it has got about John the Baptist. It stands out as what’s it stuck in here for, this little part. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light. The earlier part that we did this morning was how Jesus, or the Son of God, in eternity even before he took on humanity and became Jesus, he’s been the light. In fact the big deal of it is he’s the light that causes us to have life, and it’s the life that he has and he is and that we can have that gives us light.
[00:01:56] It’s a part of what those earlier verses 1-5 talk about, that all might believe through him. Now here we’re talking about John the Baptist, there was a man sent by God for John and he’s come for people to have a witness about the light that all might believe through him, being the light Jesus, you believe through Jesus. But John the Baptist is the witness to tell you to do that. And he was sent to tell the Jewish people before all the things of Jesus teaching and Jesus’ death and resurrection actually happened. He was a forerunner. You know in fact the Bible talks about John the Baptist as someone that is very, very
[00:02:45] important and it tells us his importance is because he’s the one that came right at the end of a long list of prophets and because he’s the one next to Jesus arriving he’s considered the greatest. That’s taken me a number of decades to work out why that is. How does John the Baptist get to be the greatest? He didn’t do any miracles. He didn’t last very long because he gets his head chopped off. He didn’t really do very much at all except to be the one who was the prophet nearest to Jesus. Jesus is called the greater prophet or the final prophet and John the Baptist gets his
[00:03:32] importance not actually from anything that he does except that he points to Jesus. He’s come to bear witness about the light and the light is the true light, that’s the Lord, which gives light to everyone. By the way this next verse is one verse where the way it’s set in the original language leaves open two interpretations and those who are good on languages tell us you can’t really pick one more over the other. And that happens in the Bible, I take them both as true but the one we got on the screen he was not the light and it goes on to say the true light which gives light to everybody was coming into the world. And that’s an interpretation of the way the Greek is put but now what I was talking about
[00:04:31] is Jesus coming into the world and Jesus is the true light and he’s coming into the world so bring the light into visibility he took on humanity is how he came into the world but the one who is the light took on humanness to be the God-Man that he might bring that light into more obvious visibility for us humans. You can track back about Jesus historically and learn about him. You can do it through the Word of God. That’s why we have four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, in order for us to look at the light at Jesus if ever you have a doubt about Jesus. Just read the Scriptures, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. There are, it’s staggering, some of the individual people back through Christian history
[00:05:30] who had problems about knowing what to believe, who did exactly that. Campbell Morgan is a preacher whose sermons, I’ve got heaps of them in my library, and he’s known to be one of the most forefront in the history of English-speaking people, expositor of the Scriptures and teacher about truths, and Krause came to his sermons because there was something wonderful there going on in his sermons. But how did he get to be someone with something to say that people kept listening to like that? Well, he’d already become an itinerant preacher and the place is a young man, but he had others who had been persuaded by some of the doubts that are brought to bear in modernity and in the Western world.
[00:06:24] Doubts about the believability of the Scriptures and about the historicity of Jesus, a really stupid thing to doubt his historicity, there’s too much evidence for it. But people did, and Campbell Morgan wasn’t trained in all the intellectual side of Christianity, but he was a travelling preacher and he got himself in a bit of tears because these people, other young men and others were telling him you can’t trust the Bible and what are you doing going around preaching everywhere? And he gave up for a little while being a preacher, he didn’t know what to do, he went and bought some books, they’re all apologetics type books and intellectual books, and they were all above his head, he couldn’t understand them and only frustrated him. What would he do?
[00:07:11] And Campbell Morgan went down to buy some more books. He went and got another Bible. And he brought it home and he said to himself and he prayed and said to the Lord, I’m gonna read Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. And you speak to me if this really is your word. Let me find it as the Word of God to me. And I’ll just read it. And he spent two years, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
[00:07:38] Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. He was determined to find out experimentally whether the Bible, especially the Gospels, was the Word of God and preaching it was the right thing to do because it’s true. Across those, I think it was two years, the four Gospels, he kept reading. That’s what happened to him. He became convinced of the testimony of the scripture because there’s something about the light that Jesus is because of his very life as the very Son of God. His life creates a light and the idea of life is more than just the light of the sun, or the light of the moon, but it is the ability to see the truth. And Campbell Morgan came out of the two years absolutely convinced that Jesus was who the
[00:08:36] Gospels say he is. And that became his ministry and everywhere he went people discerned the voice of Christ speaking through his exposition of the Gospels and the scriptures. Well, one way to take this verse 9, the true light which gives light to everyone was coming into the world. You can take the exegesis of those words to be that every person coming into the world has been lit up by the light, Jesus, because he’s the one who at every birth gives light existence, understanding. He gives humanity what it is to be human. Both of those translations can hold up, I believe both.
[00:09:28] He was in the world, that’s the light, Jesus, the one that has the life and so has the light. He was in the world and the world was made through him yet the world did not know him. He came to his own. The actual language means he came to that which he owned the world. He’s the one who made the world through whom the world was made, the Bible says. He came to his own. Or he could take it to his own people. There’s no word, people, or world, just he came to his own. Both are true, he came to the Jewish people,
[00:10:05] and the Jewish people did not recognise him. The ultimate of prophets. John the Baptist being the last to the line and called the greatest of all people except for all the people of the kingdom. He wasn’t as great as anybody in the kingdom, But the greatest was there and they listened to him, but they didn’t believe him, the Jewish leaders. The world did not know him. He came to his own and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become the children of God. And my big point to this morning sermon
[00:10:50] is is that although you are a child of God by creation, you’re a child of God, secondly, more spiritually, when you come to Christ. And that’s why it says you become children of God when you receive Christ. These ones were born, not of the blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God. You become born again. That’s why we talk about being a Christian. real Christian is that you’re a born-again type. You’ve had a second birth, first
[00:11:23] birth when you’re a baby and you cry mwah mwah. And that’s the first birth but the second birth is when you cried out to Jesus to forgive your sins when you thanked him for being your Savior and you become someone who is then born again. Now how does John the Baptist’s illustration teach us about finding your calling or finding your purpose, finding your what God wants of you? It’s because he is such a good example of someone’s purpose not being anything to do with him except for how he pointed to Christ. It was Christ who being the light gave him his purpose. The same is true for the purpose that a person discovers on being a Christian it’s nothing to do. Well it’s not that’s not right, it’s there can be connected to what you do but it’s not because of what
[00:12:41] you do. The purpose is for what Jesus will do with you is your purpose and it’s not because of how good you are it’s not because of how wonderfully intelligent you may be. There will be all sorts of different characteristics of us as we sit here today. There are some people who are sports persons and you just dash back from Melbourne having won your tennis match and you’re here and I didn’t know you were a great star. Forgive me for not welcoming you but really your purpose in life, that’s just the fact that you might be a tennis star down in Melbourne. That’s just the context but what gives you your purpose is what Jesus does through you and if you’ve become a Christian and use the fact of your sporting to give you opportunity to contact other people in the sporting arena or if you’re famous enough to even get on TV you give an opportunity for Jesus to witness through you.
[00:13:55] What makes your purpose is not you and how you’re special even not special. What makes you a witness is what Jesus does through you. I do have an old illustration which I know I’ve told before and the people from who used to come we’ve been here. Do you know this is our 20th year in Salisbury but I’ve given it before but for probably most of you, not all but most of you, you won’t have heard this but there’s a story I like the story first of all because it’s about an old man whose name is Jim and coincidentally my name is Jim. Anyway this old man was somebody who loved Christ. He had a job working on the power lines in the streets of his town and one day he slipped and fell and was taken to hospital quite injured and while he was in hospital he remembered that he had a practice every lunchtime wherever he worked around the city he would find a nearby church. This had been his practice to do before he got injured and he’d go to the church at the lunchtime
[00:15:19] and he probably had some sandwiches and ate them quickly but he’d go to the church and he had a practice at one time when the power lines he was dealing with took him near this particular church I think it was an Anglican church where they had you know priests who hover around inside your tall buildings and and he go in and sit down and there was a priest who worked there who used to see the people come and he watched old Jim every lunchtime come and he’s very curious so he got himself behind one of those big pillars closer to sea and he was wanting to overhear what Jim said because he observed him not to really pray very much just almost one sentence but when he got close enough he heard the sentence that old Jim prayed every lunchtime what he said was Jesus this is Jim that’s all that he said but we’re
[00:16:27] bowed head he worshiped the Lord well when he did fall off the the power line spot where he’s working and was taken to hospital he was in a bad state the nurses recognized that he might die the minister sought out why he didn’t come and he found out eventually he was at hospital and the minister went along to the hospital and he asked about the old man and the nursing group of people there they said something amazing happens every lunchtime there’s just something here I don’t know I read this in a book so I can’t remember the exact details but they testified to something about Jim at lunchtime and then Jim died but what was it that happened to him was his ministry not because he was super good at putting the power lines up he probably was practiced at it not because he was a
[00:17:57] religious person who had great training not because that he did some special things his ministry was that Jesus came into the hospital you know it’s true when people who love the Lord closely die that there is something that happens at their death beds and there’s many a testimony that someone sits up in bed and says I see Jesus he’s coming for me they’re actually seeing a head to the end of the age then they die but there’s something about the testimony of a person who’s come into a right relationship with Jesus and you know what they discover is that their raison d’ĂȘtre, their purpose in life, is not to do with just the human things whether you train and become a teacher or whether you have a job that you use your hands or whether you’re a person who’s got
[00:19:03] technical skills with wires and what, what makes your ministry is what Jesus does through you. And when he repeatedly does a certain thing that’s how we define what is a gift a person has. A gift is something the Holy Spirit repeatedly uses you for. And that gift is Jesus the Spirit of God bringing the will of the Son of God to work through you. And you can’t force it, you can’t fake it, you can’t do it because you’re super energetic and push, push, push. It’s something that is your ministry. And John the Baptist was said to be thought to be the greatest of the whole line of prophets, not because of anything to do with him, but simply that he was the prophet, the last one next to Jesus coming. And that his point, his task was just a point to Jesus. And John the
[00:20:20] Baptist’s illustration shows us that your true purpose, your best part of your purpose, God may have a purpose for what job you do, he may or may not tell you, some people seem to know and some don’t. He may have a purpose for you to go to a different geography, different place in the world. There can be particulars that differ from person to person, but I want to tell you that what makes it when you get there your ministry is what he does through you. As a preacher I sure do know that. I don’t exist because of good sermons, so I’m not sure how to word the word good, but I only get by not because I have a good sermon plan and everybody gives a clap at the end, but because of what Jesus does. When the Word of God is opened, he is the Word. And when he speaks to people, and that’s why that
[00:21:30] previous occasion here in this sanctuary where that family came from the other side of Brisbane and the daughter of the older daughter of the family, heard the Lord speak in the communion. She told a dad when she got outside what she’d done and she requested he arrange her baptism over at her own church. That’s because Jesus was present and particularly in the communion service where two or more gather together in his name. He is here. And the purpose of a church itself, the very sanctuary, is not just because we have a good set of, we do, we have several good sets of musicians who take turns and do really well. Not because there’s other aspects that are done well in church life, it’s God gives abilities to do better and better and the more we leave it and look to him
[00:22:29] for help. But what makes it so important and so blessing is what he does through it. I’m wanting you to answer the question about yourself. Have you worked out how to let Jesus speak through you, witness through you? Sometimes a person has a gift to be a helper to others. I knew a man in one church who always seemed to turn up with an umbrella when it rained. Some of the funerals we had at that church were outside jobs and there’s nothing worse in Sydney than having a downpour. And he’d stand next to me and up would join an umbrella. How did he know to do that? We worked out he was a man that had a gift of helps, the Bible describes. I’ve met other people in different churches around Australia who just had a gift. I met some people in America whose gift was to spot
[00:23:39] where there was a need financially. I had a need to bring my family back to Australia and I didn’t have the money for the plane fare and a man turned up at my front door. He had a sort of a large envelope which had money inside and he says this is for you and I said who’s it from? He didn’t really answer. A friend I think he said didn’t tell me anything but when I got inside and opened it up it was nearly to the exact dollar, not the exact dollar, it was a few different to what I needed to buy the air tickets. And that person, how did he know to come? If someone else sent him how could that person know? We weren’t telling. We needed so much money. There’s a gift of giving that some people have they give and there’s another gift that is called the love of strangers. I used to really wonder what
[00:24:48] that was. The truth is I’ve worked out, although the expression of the love of strangers in some people it is that they open up hospitality. That’s not what was happening with me but when I was a teenager in another church in Brisbane, a teenager just going along because my family went, but if someone came in the door from off the streets I couldn’t help myself but watch them all the way through the service and if the pastor at the time who gave lots of good sermons but often they’d be for Christians that the outsider wouldn’t get. If he didn’t include the gospel I’d worm my way over to somehow walk out the door with them and strike up a conversation and tell them. In fact I did it so often. Some of the church people said, oh Jim you don’t do that. They might not come back if
[00:25:43] you keep bothering them every time they do. The Bible calls that the love of strangers and it can cause you to want to give hospitality. It can cause you somehow to pick up their feelings and want to do something about whatever is the need. There are people in our church who have a love of strangers too and that’s the work of the Spirit and sometimes they’re unusual people. I know I’ve been on the receiving end of folk who saw me with the need when I was at a church they didn’t, you know, I hadn’t been before and came and spoke to me. In one particular church where I was there to be the preacher, the other preacher they had invited me to come as the evangelist. He then took his, he didn’t take his holidays, he retired and left and told the people, well Jim will
[00:26:49] look after the church now. And I didn’t have that much practice. They had a Deacons meeting, I didn’t know what to do. I went along, there was a bit of a shambles and the next, during the next week an old man who was also a Deacon came to see me and he said, I’m going to train you, I’m going to teach you how to get by. He was a big important sort of church and there was a lot of technical things I didn’t, wasn’t doing right but he says, I’ll scull you behind the scenes. I forget his wording but he taught me and he was ministering and I discerned his help was really the help of Christ who doesn’t put you in a situation and just leave you. And it is a marvelous thing when you see someone who has that special ability to let Jesus work through them. We’ve had mentioned in the
[00:28:02] announcements that the church needs volunteers. I want to say that what happens that makes your volunteering worth it is when you do it in Jesus’ name and you trust him to be present in it. And it doesn’t mean that you’re necessarily a wonderful doer of whatever it is but when you dedicate yourself in service to Jesus he becomes the one who is doing the doing. And the big example that John the Baptist is, that he wasn’t yet himself in the kingdom because the Bible says that the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than him. He’s important being the last of the prophets, the one that pointed to the Messiah. But any one of us who comes to know Christ and then has Jesus working through us, not just being the object we point to, but Jesus is doing the pointing where
[00:29:09] Jesus uses you. There is nothing more thrilling than have something happen and someone says, what’s it is that you’ve got? Can’t you help me? Find it too. And you lead them to Jesus. That is the greatest thrill of my life. And I’ve learned it’s about my service. It’s not really the structure of it. There is a better structure that I can sometimes do and I can improve a little bit. But what makes them powerful is when it’s Jesus who’s speaking through them. And who knows whether you’re not here tonight and Jesus is calling you and telling you you can come and believe in him. Don’t need to have any big fanfare. Just ask one of the fellow Christians you’re with or come and talk to me or one of your mates that you know seems to know the Lord and give them a bit of a thrill and
[00:30:25] say I need someone to lead me to Christ tonight. That person will be enjoying finding out that what is the real purpose of your life depends on how much you let Jesus rule and run in it. I think you’ve got my point. Let’s pray. Father I thank you for John the Baptist and I thank you that he was obedient to point to the Christ and yet he got killed before himself, understood how to get in the door. I know I believe you’ll be in heaven but that’s not what I’m talking about. But the way he was important wasn’t to do with how he thundered or his illustrations or what method he pressed them under the water when he baptized. What was important was Jesus, the one he pointed to. And Father I asked that of our congregation tonight you would get a grip on some to open up
[00:31:42] themselves either to come to know you in the first place or as a Christian person already to say Lord I want you to minister through me. I want you to make me significant by what you do through me and make that your prayer. In Jesus name we pray now. Amen.