We can walk by sight. If we have seen Christ.

Luke 1:57-80  from the daily reading in the One Year Bible (link available on links page)

John Is Born

⁵⁷ Now the time had come for Elizabeth to give birth, and she gave birth to a son. ⁵⁸ Her neighbors and her relatives heard that the Lord had displayed His great mercy toward her; and they were rejoicing with her.

⁵⁹ And it happened that on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to call him Zacharias, after his father. ⁶⁰ But his mother answered and said, “No indeed; but he shall be called John.” ⁶¹ And they said to her, “There is no one among your relatives who is called by that name.” ⁶² And they made signs to his father, as to what he wanted him called. ⁶³ And he asked for a tablet and wrote as follows, “His name is John.” And they were all astonished. ⁶⁴ And at once his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed, and he began to speak in praise of God. ⁶⁵ Fear came on all those living around them; and all these matters were being talked about in all the hill country of Judea. ⁶⁶ All who heard them kept them in mind, saying, “What then will this child turn out to be?” For the hand of the Lord was certainly with him.

Zacharias’s Prophecy

⁶⁷ And his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Spirit, and prophesied, saying:

⁸⁰ And the child continued to grow and to become strong in spirit, and he lived in the deserts until the day of his public appearance to Israel.

John was a cousin of Jesus. God had called him for a purpose even before he was concieved in his mother's womb. God has a purpose for each one of us and a calling He has placed on our lives even before we were concieved. David, the psalmist recognized this. He says in Psalm139:13-16

For You formed my inward parts;
You wove me in my mother’s womb.
¹⁴ I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Wonderful are Your works,
And my soul knows it very well.
¹⁵ My frame was not hidden from You,
When I was made in secret,
And skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth;
¹⁶ Your eyes have seen my unformed substance;
And in Your book were all written
The days that were ordained for me,
When as yet there was not one of them

John was called as a forerunner of Christ. “And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; For you will go on before the Lord to prepare His ways; ⁷⁷ To give to His people the knowledge of salvation By the forgiveness of their sins,

John's message and purpose was to prepare the way for the Lord. He declared a message of repentance for people to be ready for the coming Lord and Savior. He said of himself and Jesus:   ¹⁵ Now while the people were in a state of expectation and all were wondering in their hearts about John, as to whether he was the Christ, ¹⁶ John answered and said to them all, “As for me, I baptize you with water; but One is coming who is mightier than I, and I am not fit to untie the thong of His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. ¹⁷ His winnowing fork is in His hand to thoroughly clear His threshing floor, and to gather the wheat into His barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”(Luke 3:15-17)

John also said this of his ministry in comparisson to Christ:    ²⁵ Therefore there arose a discussion on the part of John’s disciples with a Jew about purification. ²⁶ And they came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, He who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you have testified, behold, He is baptizing and all are coming to Him.” ²⁷ John answered and said, “A man can receive nothing unless it has been given him from heaven. ²⁸ You yourselves are my witnesses that I said, ‘I am not the Christ,’ but, ‘I have been sent ahead of Him.’ ²⁹ He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. So this joy of mine has been made full. ³⁰ He must increase, but I must decrease.  

In Matthew 11:11 Jesus speaks of John with a great tribute saying:  Truly I say to you, among those born of women there has not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptist!      Jesus finishes that statement though with these words: Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

John faithfully fulfilled his call and purpose. He did indeed prepare the way for the Lord. Many of those who heard his message and received his baptism were among the first to recognize and follow Jesus. John himself though recognized the limit to what he was able to do. He knew that Jesus was the one who would bring salvation. Jesus was the one who would establish His kingdom. What John declared by faith before Jesus had done the work of redemption and restoration, we are to declare by sight. 2 Corinthians 5:7 says:  For we walk by faith, not by sight.     But, that has to do with our eternal security, our knowing that at the end of our days, when we are absent from these bodies, we will be with the Lord.

Our message, our declaration to the world is about what we have seen. We have seen Christ on the cross, paying the price for all sin. We have seen the empty tomb where He was laid. We have seen the risen Christ and know the power of the resurrection. We have seen Christ ascended and seated with the Father in heaven, where we are told we can go boldly to the throne of grace.

If you have not seen Him, seek Him. He say's: You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. 'I will be found by you,' declares the LORD...(Jeremiah 29:13-14)    and        "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. "For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.(Matthew 7:7-8) 

John faithfully declared the message of the coming Lord. We are to declare the message of the Lord who has come. Jesus preached and declared the good news of the kingdom. "I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, for I was sent for this purpose." (Luke:43) That's the message He has called and comissioned us to preach and declare.

Because He has come what Jesus said of us is true.  Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. Jesus also says of us:  Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father. ¹³ Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. ¹⁴ If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it. ¹⁵ “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.(John 14:12-15)         Those of us, the least in the kingdom, shall do greater works than Jesus. Because He has gone to the Father. We walk in the fullness of the power of the cross and the power of the resurrection. We do walk by sight, declaring and sharing what we have seen, what we  know. Ours is a message of the King who has come and is coming again.

“If you love Me, you will keep My commandments"   “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. ¹⁶ He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned. ¹⁷ These signs will accompany those who have believed: in My name they will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues; ¹⁸ they will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”(Mark 16)

That's the Lord's commandment, His commission, His purpose for us. He knew each one of us before we were concieved in our mother's womb. John was faithful to walk in his purpose. Will we too fulfill our purpose in Christ? 

Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, in my life and through my life because I have seen Christ.  Amen