John 1:15-18 John bore witness of him, and cried, saying, This was he of whom I spoke, He that comes after me is preferred before me… How far ahead John was of the apostles in his conception and reception of the Saviour. Throughout the Baptist was not only a seer of the light but was drenched by the light. I. JOHN'S EXPERIENCE AND TESTIMONY. Ver. 15 is information that the Apostle evidently thought very valuable. Having affirmed the Incarnation he recalls the testimony of the Baptist to that Incarnation. In this testimony lay the power and grace of the Forerunner. His was no outside knowledge or second-hand information, but experience, direct and personal. So now the man of permanent power is the man who speaks, or teaches, or works out of personal and spiritual experience. Learning, culture, travel, profoundest and most masterly thinking are well in their several places, because sanctifiable; but sanctity based on experience of the witness of the Spirit in us and to us individually is the grand thing. II. JOHN'S FULL-VOICED, ARTICULATE UTTERANCE OF THAT EXPERIENCE. Combine the two, "beareth" and "crieth," and you have the perfection of Christ-like witness. Sometimes in law-courts witnesses have again and again to be instructed to speak "out" or "up." There is self-evident reserve, hesitancy, a wish to say as little as possible. But John had no reserves, concealments, trickeries, and so "cried" out. Fitting it should have been so. Your private letter or personal explanation may be quiet and unobtrusive; but if your stand is in the public market, and the proclamation is a royal one, security must be taken that all around hear and know. If our heart be in our utterance the voice will answer to the heart. The testimony must not be chirped or whined, or spoken in falsetto. An unnatural twang will spoil the best speaking, albeit roaring, violence, physical sensationalism must not be confounded with "crying." III. THE WELL-BASED AND SELF-ABNEGATING CHARACTER OF JOHN'S TESTIMONY. It was the experience of no mere mood or frame, but the granitic conviction and enunciation that he was only the runner before another. 1. His aim was to keep men from leaning on himself. 2. He disclaimed any intention of founding a sect or organizing a Church. He called himself a "Voice," not a foundation. 3. His great purpose was to lead men to Christ. From this he never swerved. John's conduct in drawing attention away from self to Christ should be imitated by every worker for Christ. Explanation, system-making, to say nothing of self-proclamation, is often sheer waste of that strength which can only be profitably utilized in sending men straight to Christ. IV. JOHN'S UNEXAGGERATED, almost charily worded, RECOGNITION OF CHRIST'S DIVINITY. There was no gospel for him as there is none for us if Christ were not human. He was "a Man," but a Man who was co-eternal with the Father. But the Baptist's economy of words in proclaiming that fact is noticeable. "He was before me." Simple, ordinary-looking, superficially unremarkable, but they hold in them an absolute statement of the pre-existence and Divinity of the Man Christ Jesus. V. THE SIMPLICITY AND DIRECTNESS OF JOHN'S WITNESS TO THE PERSON AND WORK OF CHRIST. "This is He." To-day the message of the servant of Christ in relation to every problem of life and destiny must be, "this is He." There lies the spell, the mission, the divinest success. Not His gospel even, but Himself. Not about Him, but to Him. Not the Bible or the Church, but Himself. (A. B. Grosart, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: John bare witness of him, and cried, saying, This was he of whom I spake, He that cometh after me is preferred before me: for he was before me. |
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