John 1:6

A True Hero

There came a man, sent from God, whose name was John. John 1:6.

The house into which this great man of the Bible was born reminds one of the homes of some of the great men of Scotland. There was a famous writer and thinker of last generation of whom I am sure many of you have heard. His name was Carlyle. I thought of him as I read about Zacharias and Elisabeth, the father and mother of John. I think this was because Carlyle grew up under a father and mother who, like those two good people, were always very much in earnest about things. He often heard them speaking about God, and as he looked upon his father with great reverence, and upon his mother with love, he kept constantly thinking of what they said. When he grew up, he felt that he had a message for the world; and he really had. But it was neither such a beautiful nor such a solemn message as the one John the Baptist brought from his home in the hill-country of Judaea.

John's father was an old priest, and you know that his mother's name was Elisabeth. They were very good people, and they had a happy home; but for a long time there was no sound of a child's voice in it.

Like all Eastern parents, they longed with a great longing for a baby boy, and they kept praying earnestly that God would send them one. At last there came a message to Zacharias by the angel of the Lord: “Thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John.” And the angel added, “Your boy will be a great man; he will help to make the world better, and prepare the way for the Messiah.”

When the baby came, the kinsfolk and neighbors of the old couple gathered together and rejoiced over God's goodness to them. I daresay some of you have been at christening parties where there was laughing and singing. Those good people of long ago were happy over this baby, but it was with a solemn sort of joy. If they had music at their gathering, it would be the chanting of psalms. God and His worship was the one thing in their minds.

In the Bible there is a great deal said about the birth of John the Baptist. Then we hear nothing further of him until he is a man, living in the wilderness of Judaea. He did not live exactly like a hermit, but he led a very simple life far away from the town. He constantly thought about the promises of God to his people of which he had heard so much at home. When he was thirty years of age “the word of God came” to him, and he felt he could not keep silence. Away he went to give his message to the people. What preaching John's was! The fame of it attracted great crowds. There was a revival; every one was asking his neighbor, “Have you heard the preacher?

I am going to be baptized and so am I and so am I.” It was a wonderful movement. What did he preach about, do you think? It was about sin, its punishment, and its forgiveness. His great cry was “Repent!”

Meanwhile Jesus had been working away in the workshop at Nazareth. But a day came when He offered Himself to John for baptism. Then John realized that he was in the presence of his Master. His appearance, His answers everything made the Baptist feel that Jesus, and no other, was God's beloved Son, come to deliver men from sin. John at once stood aside in the work. “I was but His forerunner,” he said “the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord.”

Many of John's followers and admirers left him to follow Christ. The crowds who had hung on his preaching dwindled away. They preferred the gentle words of Jesus to the prophet's stern cry of “Repent!”

Those who are always ready to repeat unpleasant things came and told John of the success of the wonderful new Teacher, hoping no doubt to see the Baptist's eyes flash in jealous anger. But they got a sad disappointment. All he said was something like this: “Jesus is greater than I. God has given Him greater gifts. It is only right that men should follow Him. He must increase, but I must decrease.”

John's answer was noble, so noble that a famous preacher has said, “I would rather have had the grace from God to say that than have been the greatest man ever born.”

You know how it is with yourselves, boys and girls. If you are specially good at essays and another pupil in your class is not good at essays but bad at math that's all right. But suppose you have been praised for your essays every week till you are in danger of swelled head, and you think nobody can write essays like yourself. And suppose, one day, a new pupil arrives on the scene, and the following week the new pupil's essay is praised and read aloud to the class and nothing is said about yours. And suppose this goes on week after week. How do you feel then? If you can say, like John the Baptist, “I truly rejoice in that boy's or that girl's success,” then you are worth knowing, and I should be proud to shake hands with you.

Yes, John did a noble thing when he rejoiced in Christ's advancement. How did he do it? If we find out his secret perhaps we shall be able to copy his example. I'll tell you how he did it. He did it by thinking so much of Christ that he quite forgot himself. That is the best and surest cure for the small or jealous feelings that attack us as we go through life. If you forget yourself completely, how can you possibly think of yourself at the same time? And jealousy, like many other horrid feelings, just springs from thinking too much about oneself.

Once a young singer was going to appear at an important concert. She had a beautiful voice and she knew her song perfectly, but, as the concert day drew near, she found herself getting more and more nervous. She happened to mention this to a friend.

“What are you singing?” he asked.

“Gounod's The King of Love” she replied.

“Ah!” said he, “that is a very beautiful song! I'll tell you how to sing it. Forget yourself. Think of your song and the good it may do. There may be someone in the hall whom that song will help. And think of Christ. He too is listening. You are singing for Him.”

That was good advice, the very best anybody could give or take. Think of others, boys and girls. Think, above all, of Christ. Then thought of self will vanish quite away. And you, even you too, will be worthy to take a place near the hero of today's sermon. You will be imitators of John the Baptist.