Bible Study John 1:7 audio sermon combined with John 1:6

John 1:7 (English Standard Version) right click to listen to sermon in new window!
7He came as a(A) witness, to bear witness about the light,(B) that all might believe through him.
John the Baptist came to be the witness to and of Jesus Christ that people might believe what he was witnessing.
John 3:26
26And they came to John and said to him,(A) "Rabbi, he who was with you across the Jordan,(B) to whom you bore witness—look, he is baptizing, and(C) all are going to him."
John did a good job because now the people he witnessed to were going to Jesus the way they should be going.!
John 5:33
33(A) You sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth.
John was the witness to the truth... Jesus is the truth...
How can I apply this scripture to my life? I can be a witness to the light that others might believe through me :-)

This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe. John 1:7
John was a man sent by God.
Now we know that Jesus was "with" God and that Jesus "was" and "is" God!
John was a man -- a mere man like ourselves.
John was a great man -- but -- just a man.
John was the son of a man -- but he was sent by God.

John was God's messenger
Malachi 3:1 says
Look! I am sending my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me.

How do we know that John is the messenger spoken of?
Matthew 11:10 tells us what Jesus said...
John is the man to whom the Scriptures refer when they say, Look! I am sending my messenger before you and he will prepare your way before you.

Mark 1:2 says
In the book of tghe prophet Isaiah, God said...

The same came for a witness -- an eye witness, a leading witness.
he came "eis martyrian" for a testimony.
The legal institutions had been long a testimony for God in the Jewish Church. by them, revealed religion was kept up; hence, we read of the "tabernacle of the testimony," "the ark of the testimony," the "law and the testimony:" but now divine revelation is to be turned into another channel; now the testimony of Christ is the "Testimony of God."

1 Corinthians 1:6 says
This shows that what I told you about Christ is true.

Among the Gentiles, God had not left himself without witness.
Acts 14:17 says
"...but he never left himself without a witness. There were always his reminders, such as sending you rain and good crops and giving you food and joyful hearts."

But the Redeemer had no testimonies borne him amonth them. There was a profound silence concerning him, "till" John the Baptist came for a witness to Him.

1.) Look at the matter of John's testimony:
he came to bear witness to the light.
Light is a thing which witnesses for itself, and carries its own evidence along with it; but to those who shut their eyes against the light, it is necessary there should be those that bear witness to it.
Christ's light does not need man's testimony -- but the world's darkness does. John was sent of God to tell the world that the long looked for Messiah was now come, who should be a light to enlighten the Gentiles and the glory of His people Israel; and to proclaim the dispensation at hand which would bring life and immortality to light.

2.) Look at the design of John's testimony:
That all men through him might believe; not in him, but in Christ, whose way he was sent to prepare.
He taught men to look "through" him, and pass through him to Christ; through the doctrine of repentance for sin to that of faith in Christ.
He prepared men for the reception of Christ and his gospel by awakening them to a sight and sense of sin: and that, their eyes being thereby opened, they might be ready to admit those beams of divine light which, in the person and doctrine of the Messiah, were now ready to shine in their faces.
If they will receive the witness of a man, they will soon find that the witness of God is greater.

1 John 5:9-10
Since we believe human testimony, surely we can believe the testimony that comes from God. And God has testified about His Son.
All who believe in the Son of God know that this is true.