[AI translation] We have already spoken twice about the so-called prologue of the Gospel of John, and there is still something, or rather someone, who has not yet been mentioned, although he is a very characteristic figure in the Gospel stories. John the Baptist is this person, of whom the prologue says that he was "a man sent from God" and that he came as a "witness". In the verses we are about to read, the evangelist gives us this testimony of John the Baptist, as it were, by giving details of what he said about him in the prologue. Let us now see what God is saying to us through his person and his testimony.We must stop at the very first sentence recorded in John: "Vala was a man sent from God" (John 1:6a). He came into this world as an ambassador of God, as a man entrusted with God's business, with God's work. But not only he, but all of us, that is, all of us without exception, came into the world as "sent from God". So you too, whose name perhaps no one here among us knows, except you. You are also a "man sent from God"! And if we too were sent by God into this world (that is, into this world and not into another world, not into the last century or the next millennium, but into this world), then he has most certainly sent each of us with a specific task and purpose. God has his own plan and purpose for each and every life. No human soul came into this world by chance, so none came without a mission.
It is good to remember often that we are not here by chance! We are sometimes willing to think that people like the Apostle Paul, or Moses, or John the Baptist were rare exceptions. They really had their own special mission, they were sent by God to do a very special job. But we ordinary people, ordinary souls, are certainly not sent by God in the same way. For we have never seen the Lord in a burning bush like Moses, nor have we received our commission directly from the mouth of the Lord like Ezekiel. Nor did an angel appear before we were born to let our parents know who we would be and what our assignment would be. We did not have the dazzling experience of the appearing of the glory of Christ that the apostle Paul had. And yet: we are sent by God, all of us! You and I, and we are given a specific task, just as Moses, Ezekiel, Paul or John were given a specific task. The only question is, what are we living out of the mind of God that He had in mind for us when He created us and sent us here? And the big question is, are we really doing in this world what He wants us to do?
These are questions that we should answer very honestly at some point, because at the end of our journey we will have to give an account to God of how we have fulfilled our mission, our mission. Every life becomes a spoiled life that does not try to fit in, to adapt itself to the mission that God has set for it, the mission that God has sent it into this world to carry out. Have you found your special mission? Do you know how to find the work and mission God has set before you? By obeying God as fully as possible and submitting myself as fully as possible to God. Obedience and submission: these two will lead you also to the recognition and living of your specific mission. "Vala is a man sent from God" - so remember: you are the man sent from God!
Of course, it would be very difficult to list all the special missions that God sends human souls into the world with, because there are so many different kinds of missions. But in general, our mission is the same as that of John the Baptist. To the question of the delegates of the priests and Levites, "Who are you?", to the questioning, almost a vindication, "What do you say about yourself?", he indicates the essence of his mission thus: "I am a crying word in the wilderness. (Jn 1,23) It would be hard to find a better and more apt way of expressing the essence of the mission of a man sent by God. But what does it mean? A cry in the wilderness, a voice in the wilderness: this is what John wants to be. Nothing else! A great cry, a great warning, a great sign. A trumpet, the voice of God, the organ of God. And: a shouting word, not a whispering voice, not an uncertain sound, not an unintelligible murmur, but an unmistakable, loud, clear cry, a voice that resounds far and wide, a voice that awakens, awakens, reminds!
But in this great shout, let his tongue and his mouth have the least part, and let the work of his two hands, his ministry in the world, his deeds, his life, shout the name of Jesus all the more! Everything in the life of the believer must speak of Christ, just as the Scripture says: "Whether you eat or drink, whatever you do" (1 Cor 10:31), all of it calls the attention of others to Jesus, all of it brings Jesus to the minds of others. To be a shouting word in the wilderness now means for us to hold out "the word of life" to the world. Not, then, a speech of fine words, but a speech of the life of Christ proclaimed in the most unmistakable way. The apostle Peter once says to wives, "Obey their husbands, that, though some obey not the word, yet by the conduct of their wives they may be won without the word; considering your blameless lives in fear." (1Pt 3:1-2) This is how I now understand the essence of the word shouting, that the conduct of the believer as he carries himself in the various situations of life, all that he lives, should be a loud shout, a strong testimony of Jesus Christ.
And in this no one can hinder the believer in Christ. Everything else can be forbidden, hindered, silenced, but not the speech of life! You may find yourself in circumstances where you cannot speak of Christ, but no one can ever stop you from living the life of Christ! To live Christ! You can't be forbidden, for example, to forgive, to be joyful and longsuffering, to do favors for others, to bear others' burdens! Or, for example, you cannot silence the voice of love, even though you are surrounded by unloving people - even enemies - but you have all the more reason to learn and show the world what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount: "Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who trouble and persecute you!" (Mt 5,44) Yes: it is the mission of every believer to be in this sense a proclaiming voice of Christ, a crying word in the wilderness.
It is no accident that "in the wilderness"! Not in the temple, where ears are used to such a word, but just outside the temple, in the wilderness. In a place where the word is often lost, where the sound dies away, where there is never an echo, except the sound of jackals or wolves, or the wind. In a place where every cry seems hopeless, because who cares who hears it, what will be the result?! And all this is not important, it does not matter what will be the fate and the result of the word that is cried out, because the crying word has done away with the fact that it is uttered in the wilderness - that is the essence of it, a crying word in the wilderness.
I will further explain the meaning of the crying word and thus John's calling, this call, "Make straight the way of the Lord" (verse 23b) This phrase refers to the old custom that when an Eastern king went somewhere, his entry was prepared by a herald, a messenger. He went before him, everywhere, shouting loudly to let the people know of the great event: the king is coming, let them prepare to receive him, let them prepare and make straight the way before his feet, that his entry may be worthy, ornate, splendid and easy.
That is why John the Baptist is called the road-setter, the road-maker. Can there be a greater task for a believer than to smooth and prepare the way of Christ for other hearts? Jesus is coming, Jesus is here, and now His heralds in the wilderness are paving the way for Him to enter into many, many human hearts. Do you know what you do best to prepare the way of Christ for others? By what we have just talked about: by giving them the word of life. So it's not your words, but your converted, born again, forgiven of sin and cleansed in the blood of Christ, because that's the most powerful way of straightening the way. And in such a way Christ marches on with irresistible power to conquer other souls. Think now of your children, the heart of your spouse! Or believing children: think now of your parents! Is all that you do, the way you live, the way you behave at home, a straightening of the way for Christ towards them, or, on the contrary, a blocking of the way? Because there is such a thing! That is, that the believer is blocking the way of Christ to the hearts of others! I once heard a very serious believing pastor say: I have come to realize that I am the greatest obstacle to my wife's conversion!
How about you? Are you a paver, or a blocker, an obstacle?! For there are so many obstacles in the way of Christ reaching a heart, do not be an obstacle! And do you know that the obstacles, the barriers that the world puts in the way of Christ, the defensive walls with which the world wants to exclude Christ from a man's life, are nothing compared to the obstacles that the life of a believer - an unbeliever - puts in the way of Christ? You know, that's when someone openly throws in your face - or secretly stores up in the depths of their soul - the conclusion they have drawn about you. That: If that's the life of a convert, a believer like you, I don't want it! Keep it to yourself!
Straighten your paths! Watch out! In many continents, it is the sin of the straighteners that has discredited all Christendom!
How good it is that the man sent from God can point to Christ and say, "Behold the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of the world!" Oh, what a humbling and degrading thing it is: God takes away sin. But how? He could have taken away sin by taking away the sinner, by wiping him out of the world, as he once did with the sins of the old world by the flood. But He does not do that, but God has found a way that He does destroy sin, He does take away sin, but He still saves the sinner!
Behold, the Word made flesh! He, the only begotten Son of God, the Lamb of God, who takes upon Himself the sins of the world, takes them away and takes them away. Just as on the great Day of Atonement in the Old Testament, the high priest laid his hands on a goat, confessing the sins of the people, as it were, laying on it all the sins of the people. (Leviticus 16:21-22) And just as the goat took the sins of the people into the wilderness, so the Lamb of God, on whom the Lord has laid the sins of us all, on the Day of Atonement, the day of His blessing on Calvary, took the sins of the world to the place where sin belongs: to damnation. For He became a curse for us, He descended into hell for us, He was damned in our place! Behold, the Lamb of God took away the sins of the world, your sins, my sins. That is why there is a new beginning for the unfaithful paviors, and why even those who have not been paviors can become shouters and paviors! You can be "a man sent from God" because, behold, that Lamb of God has taken away your sin too. If you truly accept what He has done for you: you will have again, and always again, something to cry into the world!
Amen
Date: 17 September 1950.
Lesson
Jn 1,19-38