The Baptist is surrounded by a delegation of priests and Levites sent from Jerusalem demanding to know who he is. But then everything stops:
“The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, ‘Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! This is he of whom I said, “After me comes a man who ranks before me, because he was before me”’” (Jn 1:29-30).
The Greek word for “takes away” is airo. It refers to the act of removing people or physical things from one location to another. This reminds me of a favorite song by the Fifth Dimension in 1967:
“Up, up and away, my beautiful, my beautiful balloon!”
Jesus is to our sins, upon confession, what helium is to a large balloon. We feel much less weighed down in his presence!
At this point, Jesus approaches John for the first time, likely coming straight from the temptation in the wilderness. He has never seen Jesus before, yet he immediately knows that this is the Messiah!
How does he know? What is his proof, the Levites demand?
“’I myself did not know him, but for this purpose I came baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to Israel…I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, “He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit”’” (Jn 1:31-33).
Here, again, we have God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit in such perfect unity that they are three persons, yet perfectly One.
John concludes:
“’And I have seen and borne witness that this is the Son of God’” (Jn 1:34).
The Baptist had been told by God what to expect and what would validate Jesus as the Son of God who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. He has now seen it and he stakes his life on it.
The fundamental hypothesis of this entire blog series has been that in John 17, when Jesus prays for perfect unity, just before his life is “staked” brutally on a cross like a common criminal, he is telling us how perfect unity in his church should look.
Jesus is saying that when his children, who believe in him as the Son of God, though we are many, many persons, should attract the world as perfectly one body with the same ultimate message:
“…so that the world may believe that you have sent me…and have loved them even as you have loved me…that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them” (Jn 17:23, 26).
It starts with agape love – do we have the same powerful tug of love on our hearts for the persecuted house church on the other side of the world as we do for our own church or for our own families?
It is not that we all must be the same; it is that we must all care as one as seen by the world, if we are to be the answer to the passionate prayer of Jesus for all people to know how much God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and you and I, love them!
What does this look like in the real world? That is what Streamside Unity hopes to pursue.
What does this not look like in the real world? I heard a great sermon yesterday at a major church that has campuses connected electronically spreading around the world. The pastor stated: “The local church is the hope of the world.”
At first blush this might appear to conflict with the vision of perfect unity.
Not at all!
Just as his campuses all receive exactly the same word despite their disparate locations, perfect unity looks like consistently true messages that faithfully communicate the faith and salvation available through Jesus Christ.
But it also includes helping each other in many ways that are not possible today.
Perfect unity is a two-way highway!