Rev. Alan J. Meenan
From every human perspective, John the Baptizer experienced great difficulty and pain in his life. He lived during a time of military upheaval. An entrenched militant religion had become intolerant of other ideas. In those days, Judaism would stop at nothing to force its own agenda - even murder. There is a mark of similarity between the days in which John lived, and the days in which we live. We, too, live with the constant threat of terrorism from a militant religion. We are told that Islam is a religion of peace, yet it is intolerant of every idea other than its own. Certainly there are some fringe members of the Christian faith who are every bit as fanatical as those in Islam. The problem, though, is that it is not only the fringe element of Islam who adheres to that religious system.
I’m upset by the worldwide Muslim unrest. In Israel, Palestine, Afghanistan, Indonesia, Croatia, Chechnya and Sudan there is unrest. In fact, apart from Northern Ireland, every religious 'unrest' in the world today seems to be rooted in Islam. This religion espouses the Koran, which states that those who make war against Allah and his apostles shall be put to death, crucified, have their hands and feet cut off, or be banished from the country. Salmon Rushdie wrote a book in opposition to the Islamic faith, and he had to run for his life. Jerry Falwell said something against Mohammad, and his life was threatened. In Islamic countries, those who convert from Islam to Christianity do so under the sentence of death. Christian missions and the building of Christian institutions or churches are illegal in Islamic countries.
We are told that Islam is a religion of peace, yet neither the name nor the prophet embodied peace. Mohammed is a warrior who promises death to infidels, and, contrary to what so many tell us on Television, Islam does not come from the word Salaam, meaning “peace.” It comes from an Arabic word that means “submission.” Influenced by Jewish and Christian teaching in the 6th century AD, Mohammed has either willingly or unwittingly distorted Judeo-Christian documents. We read in the Koran, “If the People of the Book, (Jews and Christians) accept the true faith and keep from evil, We will pardon them their sins and admit them to the gardens of delight. If they observe the Torah and the Gospel and what is revealed to them from Allah, they shall be given abundance from above and from beneath.” And, of course, that’s the teaching of Allah, they say, “Our apostle has come to reveal to you much of what you have hidden of the Scriptures,…A light has come to you from Allah…with which He will guide you to the paths of peace.” A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, and Mohammad, the prophet, had a little knowledge of Judeo-Christian material. Consequently, there is a great deal of confusing and superfluous material in the Koran that does not adequately or accurately describe either Jewish or Christian thinking. For example, the birth of Jesus takes place in a distant place rather than in Bethlehem. The Koran will admit Mary conceives as a virgin, but conceives in a place underneath a palm tree beside a brook where she is both fed and her thirst quenched. Then when she brings the child back to her friends, they say, “This is indeed a strange thing!" and the child immediately begins to preach from the cradle to those who would listen: '"How can we speak with a babe in the cradle?"' Whereupon he spoke and said: (this is the baby speaking) 'I am the servant of Allah. He has given me the Gospel and ordained me a prophet. His blessing is upon me wherever I go, and He has commanded me to be steadfast in prayer...I was blessed on the day I was born, and blessed I shall be on the day of my death; and may peace be upon me on the day when I shall be raised to life.'" A clever child.
Such was Jesus, the Son of Mary. That is the whole truth, which the Christians aren’t willing to accept. And then, of course, he confuses Mary the mother of Jesus, with Miriam, the sister of Moses. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. What did John the Baptizer say about Jesus? Remember that John was a friend of Christ. He was the friend of the bridegroom, and the task of the friend of the bridegroom was to bring the bride and the groom together. John’s task was to introduce Jesus to the world. In so doing, he said to the world, “This is who Jesus is.” 'Tis my business here below to cry Behold the Lamb.
John inaugurated an era in which the supremacy of Jesus Christ was asserted. In John 3:31, he says, “The one who comes from above is above all.” And, “The one who comes from heaven is above all.” John takes a step back and introduces the groom who is distinct, unique and supreme.
Jesus is distinct from all who had come before Him and all who would come after Him. John informs us that Jesus came from God. He came from heaven. Crossman wrote these lovely words:
“In life, no house, no home,
My Lord on earth might have;
In death, no friendly tomb
But what a stranger gave.
What may I say?
Heaven was His home;
But mine the tomb
Wherein He lay.”
The apostle Paul eagerly conveys the same message in Colossians. He (Christ) is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers, or rulers or authorities; all things were created by Him and for Him. He is before all things and in Him all things hold together. Jesus came from heaven. And John also tells us in verse 32 that, “He testifies to what he has seen and heard.” John’s first point is that Jesus Christ came from God. His second point is that Jesus came to show us God. As one who had seen and heard God, who has firsthand experience of eternal things, Jesus' testimony is trustworthy and complete. The gospel prologue impinges upon the echo of our minds when it says, “No man has seen God at any time.” The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He has made Him known.
The Koran says that Jesus Christ is merely an apostle. In fact, near the end of the Koran, God asks Jesus, “Did you tell anybody that you were God?” Let me read his response according to the Koran: “Jesus, son of Mary, did you ever say to mankind: 'Worship me and my mother as gods beside Allah?'" 'Glory to you,' he will answer, 'how could I say that to which I have no right.'" The New Testament says otherwise. Six hundred years before the Koran was written, Jesus said, “Before Abraham was, I am.” He took upon Himself the name of God. “The Father and I are one. The person who has seen me, has seen the Father.” When Philip asks the question, “Show us God,” Jesus said, “Have I been so long with you Philip, and still you don’t know me?" When He stilled the storm in the Galilee, the disciples turned to one another and asked, “Who is this Jesus that even the winds and the waves obey?” They recognized that the only one, in the history of the world, that the winds and waves obey, was God. John doesn’t stop there.
In verse thirty-four, John says, “For the one whom God has sent, speaks the words of God, for God gives the spirit without limit. The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in His hand.” John suggests that on Jesus Christ, God poured out His spirit in full measure. God put no limit on the supply of His spirit for the one whom He sent. I find it fascinating that there is a description of the Holy Spirit resting upon Jesus in the Koran as well. “Allah will say, 'Jesus, son of Mary, remember the favor I have bestowed on you and on your mother: how I strengthened you with the Holy Spirit, so that you preached to men in your cradle…'" "…how by My leave you fashioned from clay the likeness of a bird and breathed into it so that, by My leave, it became a living bird;" Mohammad got that from the Pseudepigrapha (false writings, falsely inscribed) rather than from the Scriptures. And there the confusion reigns again.
There is no question that Jesus was empowered by the Holy Spirit. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit at His birth. He was anointed by the Holy Spirit at His baptism. He was directed by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness. He was sustained by the Holy Spirit in the sacrifice on the cross. The Holy Spirit raised Him from the tomb, and He received the Holy Spirit in His heavenly reign. When God sent His Son into the world, He did not hold back from giving Him the fullness of the Holy Spirit. Of His fullness, we have all received grace upon grace.
Jesus came from God. He came to show us God. He came in the power of God. That is how John the Baptizer introduces Jesus to a waiting world. It is no wonder that the final word of John reflects the dignity and the majesty of his encounter with Jesus and his love for Christ. Look at the very last sentence of the paragraph in verse thirty-six, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him.” I’m not interested in Mohammed’s perspective. So much of what he writes is already wrong. However, I am very interested in the experiences of John, the Baptizer and John, the apostle, who wrote these things in order that you might believe. And in believing you might have life through the Son.
Jesus Christ is the Supreme Being. There is no one and nothing else like Him. How then, in light of this theology, will you deal with the supremacy of Jesus Christ? A great gospel preacher by the name of Graham Scroggie had been preaching a sermon on Acts 10:14. The preacher claimed that Peter’s statement “Not so, Lord" was a contradiction in terms. Either Peter had to learn to drop the words “Not so" or the word “Lord.” After the sermon, Graham Scroggie spent two hours in the back of large tent with a lady. Dr. Scrogie wrote the words in the margin of her Bible, handed it to her and said, “Madame, strike out the words "not so", or strike out the word "Lord.” He watched her struggle before him. Eventually, through tears, she scratched out the words, “Not so.” He asked the question, “What have you left?” Through a smile she said, “Lord.” She had come to an understanding of the supremacy of Jesus Christ, as one who came from God, to show God, in the power of God. Nothing else could possibly compare. She embraced that concept spiritually, emotionally and materially. Michael has introduced us to our season of stewardship. Let me say this as we conclude: To properly understand stewardship is to understand and acknowledge the absolute authority of Jesus Christ in a human life. At the very heart of stewardship, it is saying, “This is the throne at which I would bow. This is the task in which I would share. This is the truth by which I will live.” Stewardship is simply an invitation to a heightened measure of faith. It is a place of beginning. It is a place to discover faith for the first time or discover faith all over again. We put ourselves in tune with Jesus Christ, who alone is God. The question for you to consider is not, "Do you believe the scripture over the Koran?” It is, “How much would you trust this Jesus?” Will you trust Him with your life? Will you trust Him with your future? Will you trust Him with your finances? Will you trust Him with your career? Will trust Him in your relationships? Will you trust Him for everything? This is no ordinary man. This is Jesus Christ, who came from God, to show us God, in the power of God.
From every human perspective, John the Baptizer experienced great difficulty and pain in his life. He lived during a time of military upheaval. An entrenched militant religion had become intolerant of other ideas. In those days, Judaism would stop at nothing to force its own agenda - even murder. There is a mark of similarity between the days in which John lived, and the days in which we live. We, too, live with the constant threat of terrorism from a militant religion. We are told that Islam is a religion of peace, yet it is intolerant of every idea other than its own. Certainly there are some fringe members of the Christian faith who are every bit as fanatical as those in Islam. The problem, though, is that it is not only the fringe element of Islam who adheres to that religious system.
I’m upset by the worldwide Muslim unrest. In Israel, Palestine, Afghanistan, Indonesia, Croatia, Chechnya and Sudan there is unrest. In fact, apart from Northern Ireland, every religious 'unrest' in the world today seems to be rooted in Islam. This religion espouses the Koran, which states that those who make war against Allah and his apostles shall be put to death, crucified, have their hands and feet cut off, or be banished from the country. Salmon Rushdie wrote a book in opposition to the Islamic faith, and he had to run for his life. Jerry Falwell said something against Mohammad, and his life was threatened. In Islamic countries, those who convert from Islam to Christianity do so under the sentence of death. Christian missions and the building of Christian institutions or churches are illegal in Islamic countries.
We are told that Islam is a religion of peace, yet neither the name nor the prophet embodied peace. Mohammed is a warrior who promises death to infidels, and, contrary to what so many tell us on Television, Islam does not come from the word Salaam, meaning “peace.” It comes from an Arabic word that means “submission.” Influenced by Jewish and Christian teaching in the 6th century AD, Mohammed has either willingly or unwittingly distorted Judeo-Christian documents. We read in the Koran, “If the People of the Book, (Jews and Christians) accept the true faith and keep from evil, We will pardon them their sins and admit them to the gardens of delight. If they observe the Torah and the Gospel and what is revealed to them from Allah, they shall be given abundance from above and from beneath.” And, of course, that’s the teaching of Allah, they say, “Our apostle has come to reveal to you much of what you have hidden of the Scriptures,…A light has come to you from Allah…with which He will guide you to the paths of peace.” A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, and Mohammad, the prophet, had a little knowledge of Judeo-Christian material. Consequently, there is a great deal of confusing and superfluous material in the Koran that does not adequately or accurately describe either Jewish or Christian thinking. For example, the birth of Jesus takes place in a distant place rather than in Bethlehem. The Koran will admit Mary conceives as a virgin, but conceives in a place underneath a palm tree beside a brook where she is both fed and her thirst quenched. Then when she brings the child back to her friends, they say, “This is indeed a strange thing!" and the child immediately begins to preach from the cradle to those who would listen: '"How can we speak with a babe in the cradle?"' Whereupon he spoke and said: (this is the baby speaking) 'I am the servant of Allah. He has given me the Gospel and ordained me a prophet. His blessing is upon me wherever I go, and He has commanded me to be steadfast in prayer...I was blessed on the day I was born, and blessed I shall be on the day of my death; and may peace be upon me on the day when I shall be raised to life.'" A clever child.
Such was Jesus, the Son of Mary. That is the whole truth, which the Christians aren’t willing to accept. And then, of course, he confuses Mary the mother of Jesus, with Miriam, the sister of Moses. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. What did John the Baptizer say about Jesus? Remember that John was a friend of Christ. He was the friend of the bridegroom, and the task of the friend of the bridegroom was to bring the bride and the groom together. John’s task was to introduce Jesus to the world. In so doing, he said to the world, “This is who Jesus is.” 'Tis my business here below to cry Behold the Lamb.
John inaugurated an era in which the supremacy of Jesus Christ was asserted. In John 3:31, he says, “The one who comes from above is above all.” And, “The one who comes from heaven is above all.” John takes a step back and introduces the groom who is distinct, unique and supreme.
Jesus is distinct from all who had come before Him and all who would come after Him. John informs us that Jesus came from God. He came from heaven. Crossman wrote these lovely words:
“In life, no house, no home,
My Lord on earth might have;
In death, no friendly tomb
But what a stranger gave.
What may I say?
Heaven was His home;
But mine the tomb
Wherein He lay.”
The apostle Paul eagerly conveys the same message in Colossians. He (Christ) is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers, or rulers or authorities; all things were created by Him and for Him. He is before all things and in Him all things hold together. Jesus came from heaven. And John also tells us in verse 32 that, “He testifies to what he has seen and heard.” John’s first point is that Jesus Christ came from God. His second point is that Jesus came to show us God. As one who had seen and heard God, who has firsthand experience of eternal things, Jesus' testimony is trustworthy and complete. The gospel prologue impinges upon the echo of our minds when it says, “No man has seen God at any time.” The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He has made Him known.
The Koran says that Jesus Christ is merely an apostle. In fact, near the end of the Koran, God asks Jesus, “Did you tell anybody that you were God?” Let me read his response according to the Koran: “Jesus, son of Mary, did you ever say to mankind: 'Worship me and my mother as gods beside Allah?'" 'Glory to you,' he will answer, 'how could I say that to which I have no right.'" The New Testament says otherwise. Six hundred years before the Koran was written, Jesus said, “Before Abraham was, I am.” He took upon Himself the name of God. “The Father and I are one. The person who has seen me, has seen the Father.” When Philip asks the question, “Show us God,” Jesus said, “Have I been so long with you Philip, and still you don’t know me?" When He stilled the storm in the Galilee, the disciples turned to one another and asked, “Who is this Jesus that even the winds and the waves obey?” They recognized that the only one, in the history of the world, that the winds and waves obey, was God. John doesn’t stop there.
In verse thirty-four, John says, “For the one whom God has sent, speaks the words of God, for God gives the spirit without limit. The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in His hand.” John suggests that on Jesus Christ, God poured out His spirit in full measure. God put no limit on the supply of His spirit for the one whom He sent. I find it fascinating that there is a description of the Holy Spirit resting upon Jesus in the Koran as well. “Allah will say, 'Jesus, son of Mary, remember the favor I have bestowed on you and on your mother: how I strengthened you with the Holy Spirit, so that you preached to men in your cradle…'" "…how by My leave you fashioned from clay the likeness of a bird and breathed into it so that, by My leave, it became a living bird;" Mohammad got that from the Pseudepigrapha (false writings, falsely inscribed) rather than from the Scriptures. And there the confusion reigns again.
There is no question that Jesus was empowered by the Holy Spirit. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit at His birth. He was anointed by the Holy Spirit at His baptism. He was directed by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness. He was sustained by the Holy Spirit in the sacrifice on the cross. The Holy Spirit raised Him from the tomb, and He received the Holy Spirit in His heavenly reign. When God sent His Son into the world, He did not hold back from giving Him the fullness of the Holy Spirit. Of His fullness, we have all received grace upon grace.
Jesus came from God. He came to show us God. He came in the power of God. That is how John the Baptizer introduces Jesus to a waiting world. It is no wonder that the final word of John reflects the dignity and the majesty of his encounter with Jesus and his love for Christ. Look at the very last sentence of the paragraph in verse thirty-six, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him.” I’m not interested in Mohammed’s perspective. So much of what he writes is already wrong. However, I am very interested in the experiences of John, the Baptizer and John, the apostle, who wrote these things in order that you might believe. And in believing you might have life through the Son.
Jesus Christ is the Supreme Being. There is no one and nothing else like Him. How then, in light of this theology, will you deal with the supremacy of Jesus Christ? A great gospel preacher by the name of Graham Scroggie had been preaching a sermon on Acts 10:14. The preacher claimed that Peter’s statement “Not so, Lord" was a contradiction in terms. Either Peter had to learn to drop the words “Not so" or the word “Lord.” After the sermon, Graham Scroggie spent two hours in the back of large tent with a lady. Dr. Scrogie wrote the words in the margin of her Bible, handed it to her and said, “Madame, strike out the words "not so", or strike out the word "Lord.” He watched her struggle before him. Eventually, through tears, she scratched out the words, “Not so.” He asked the question, “What have you left?” Through a smile she said, “Lord.” She had come to an understanding of the supremacy of Jesus Christ, as one who came from God, to show God, in the power of God. Nothing else could possibly compare. She embraced that concept spiritually, emotionally and materially. Michael has introduced us to our season of stewardship. Let me say this as we conclude: To properly understand stewardship is to understand and acknowledge the absolute authority of Jesus Christ in a human life. At the very heart of stewardship, it is saying, “This is the throne at which I would bow. This is the task in which I would share. This is the truth by which I will live.” Stewardship is simply an invitation to a heightened measure of faith. It is a place of beginning. It is a place to discover faith for the first time or discover faith all over again. We put ourselves in tune with Jesus Christ, who alone is God. The question for you to consider is not, "Do you believe the scripture over the Koran?” It is, “How much would you trust this Jesus?” Will you trust Him with your life? Will you trust Him with your future? Will you trust Him with your finances? Will you trust Him with your career? Will trust Him in your relationships? Will you trust Him for everything? This is no ordinary man. This is Jesus Christ, who came from God, to show us God, in the power of God.
