Teaching Notes

You are worthy of my praise!  You took my punishment.  This should be me, nailed to the cross for my sins.  Instead you took the pounding, the beating, the weight that I could not carry.  You are the hero of this story, you can and saved the day!

Things About God

He is Worthy

John 1:25-27 (The Message)

25Those sent to question him were from the Pharisee party. Now they had a question of their own: "If you're neither the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet, why do you baptize?"


26-27John answered, "I only baptize using water. A person you don't recognize has taken his stand in your midst. He comes after me, but he is not in second place to me. I'm not even worthy to hold his coat for him."

Notes: John the Baptist is known as the "fore runner" for Jesus.  He came to prepare the hearts of the people for Jesus (the Messiah).  He is asked a question from the Pharisees why he is baptizing if he is not the Messiah or Elijah. 

Question: What Does John's answer reflected about his understanding of the Messiah?

Answer: John understood that he was one preparing the way for Jesus.  He knew that Jesus, the Messiah was coming and worthy of the honor.  Jesus is so worthy of the praise that John says he is not even worth himself to carry the Messiah's coat.  He realizes that God is far greater than he is.  This is called reverence.  We talked about that last week, but it is always good to remind yourself about how good God is.  God is greater than you and I and he is always worthy of our praise and our honor.

Prayer: Lord today we simply want to say thank you for your greatness.  You are worthy of all praise, all honor all that we can give you.  Let us start first with giving you our complete hearts yielded to you. 

Lord help me to be what you have called me to be.  Help me to be all that I can be for you.  I love you Lord today.