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The next day John 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 is preferred before me, for He was before me.' I did not know Him; but that He should be revealed to Israel, therefore I came baptizing with water." And John bore witness, saying, "I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and He remained upon Him. I did not know Him, but He who sent me to baptize with water said to me, 'Upon whom you see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.' And I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God." John 1: 29-34 NKJV

As often happens, I noticed something reading this passage this time that I had not seen before. John says, “I did not know Him.” Now John and Jesus were about six months apart in age and their mothers were related to each other. John probably knew Jesus as they were growing up together. He may have remembered Joseph and Mary frantically looking for Jesus at age twelve when he stayed behind at the temple and his parents thought he was traveling with relatives. Imagine his surprise when God revealed to him that Jesus was the Messiah. He hadn’t known that before. He may have heard the stories of the occurrences that surrounded Jesus birth and thought that there was something special about Him, but the Messiah? That is just too weird. It must have caught him a little off guard.

You may have been caught off guard as well when God revealed to you who Jesus is. Do you remember the day? Sure you knew that Jesus was a great teacher or some sort of religious holy man, but the Savior? He was God in the flesh and He died to save you from the penalty of your sin. Remember when you first realized that?

I realized that one night traveling with a group of high school students from my church. We had attended a “lay-witness” meeting in another town. It was like a one-night revival meeting of sorts. It was a very moving and emotional service. I had been going to church for a few years with my family, but no one had ever really explained the gospel to me. On the ride home that night, Reba, my friend, explained what it meant to believe on the Lord. I suddenly knew who Jesus was. Before that, I did not know him.

"Inspiration For You" from Randy Mitchell

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