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The Gospel of John, The Witness of John the Baptist - Lesson 7
Read John 1:19-34
John's Gospel does not introduce us to John the Baptist as the other 3 gospels do; no hint of the camels hair raiment; or the leather girdle about his loins; or that his meat was locusts and honey.
No mention of John's call to "REPENT" or his loud call that Christ is coming, or the "Kingdom of Heaven is at hand", No! not in John's gospel.
No mention of judgment and the fan with which he will purge the floor and gather the wheat into the garner.
No mention of the axe that is laid to the root of the tree and cast into the fire.
No mention of the chaff burning with unquenchable fire.
The Apostle John tells us very little of all that.
He takes it for granted that these facts from the other gospels are general knowledge by the time of the writing of this last gospel.
But in John's gospel, John the Baptist points to the Christ as "the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world."
A fit object of belief and due all consideration as the only one to put your faith in.
This is John's message that ye believe that Jesus is the Christ and that believing ye might have life through his name.
John was the voice, Jesus is the Word.
The voice is simply a medium to express the Word.
The Word has pre-imminence.
The Voice is but a tool to get the Word out.
John fully realized this.
See Isaiah 40:3,4 The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness. Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight and the rough places plain.
This was John's purpose.
He was the announcer of the greatest coming the world had ever seen.
He had a purpose with a fixed life to it and he realized that his purpose was fulfilled when Christ started his ministry on his way to the cross.
He did not try to expand his work and to add to his work but he realized that he must decrease as Christ increased.
This is something that one can do only in the Spirit of God.
Our flesh is not willing to decrease.
Our flesh wants to exalt itself and to have the pre-imminence.
But by the power of the Spirit John was enabled to subdue the flesh and fulfill the will of God.
His heart was so centered on the coming one that there was no room for thoughts of self or self advantage.
Our passage opens by telling of a deputation of priests and Levites who have been sent from Jerusalem to inquire of John as to whom he was.
This incident begins about 6 weeks after John's baptism of Jesus and Jesus' temptation by Satan.
John now knows who the Christ is as that had been revealed to him by the manifestation of the Spirit at the baptism of Christ and the voice from heaven affirming the Son ship of Jesus Christ.
The record of this delegation is unique to the gospel of John and the incident shows the ignorance of the religious leaders among the Jews.
This was indeed a wilderness of spiritual knowledge that John entered with the astounding message of the coming of one to take away the sins of the world.
The leaders of the Jews had felt the stir that John had made in the land, had felt threatened by one who might cause their religious system trouble, who had introduced a rite of baptism reserved for proselytes, and they came to inquire of whom this person claimed to be.
Luke 3:15, And as the people were in expectation, and all men mused in their hearts of John, whether he were the Christ, or not.
John had made quite a stir in Israel and was the everyday talk of the people and many believed him to be the Christ.
The leaders were compelled to inquire and therefore sent a delegation to John to find out who he was, and to examine his credentials.
To them he was an interloper.
He was outside the religious systems of the day.
He had not been trained in their schools and he had held no positions of honor in the temple and he was not identified with the Pharisees, Sadducees or the Herodians.
John did not sit at their revered teachers feet or have the appropriate diplomas or certificates.
Who had commissioned him to go forth to bid people to repent?
By what right or authority did he baptize people?
Who art thou? Who are you?
You are causing a stir among the people and this stir has reached the Sanhedrin and the school of the Pharisees.
John's preaching had touched a chord and excited the nation.
Some were saying that John was the Messiah.
John does not so much as give a second to the idea but as can be seen in the text, and instead of answering the question confesses that he is not the Christ.
I am not the Christ he, thundered! He knew this was on the mind of the Pharisees. S
Seems the Pharisees always have a hidden agenda and have trouble expressing their real purpose.
John knew his purpose and was resolute in his determination to not accept honors that were not his or to have anyone think for a moment that he was the Messiah.
The Questioners knew the scriptures.
When they were satisfied that he did not claim to be the Christ they asked, Then are you Elijah?
They referred to Malachi, the last of the writing prophets who had foretold that, "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord."
This of course refers to the second coming of Christ, when God sends forth Elijah in a similar preparation mission to John's mission.
Although John had much in common with Elijah the Tishbite and his work was very similar in nature to the future work of Elijah, he denied that he was Elijah by the short and precise answer, "I am not!"
The questioners go back even further to discover John's identity.
They look to Moses in Deut 18:15, when Moses prophesied that God would raise up a prophet just like him. "The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken:
This of course is one of the many messianic prophecies given in the Old Testament and was fulfilled in Jesus Christ.
The delegation asks; Are you that Prophet? John, in ever shorter answers, indicating impatience and a desire to stop talking about himself, answers, "No!"
The delegation insists that an answer that will satisfy their leaders be given.
Verse 22. Who art thou? What sayest thou on thyself? Here is your opportunity to give us your resume. Boast of thyself. What fancy letters of rank follow your name. What is your heritage? What is your family background?
John may have said that he was the son of Zacharias the priest, he may have answered that he has been filled with the Holy Spirit from the womb, he may have said he was the most remarkable character ever raised up by God and sent to Israel.
What an opportunity to blow his horn and to gain some attention.
But John is one filled with the Spirit and when filled with the Spirit one does not take the pre-imminence.
All glory is reserved for another.
John simply claims the mission that Isaiah had spoke of 700 years previously.
This is the relationship between Christ and the forerunner.
Verse 23. He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Esaias.
John was the "voice" with which to make known the "WORD" The voice is simply heard and not seen.
You do not see a voice, You hear it.
The message that John has is much greater than he is .
This is what John was interested in, not talk about himself.
His purpose was to get men to listen to his God-given message so that men would behold the LAMB of GOD.
He was not there to talk about himself.
John was the voice and that voice was to be used to prepare the way of the Lord and to make his paths straight.
Now is the time to get the crooked things our of your life and to deal with the things that are wrong.
His voice accomplished its mission and then was stilled, but the WORD endures forever.
Verses 24,25: And they which were sent were of the Pharisees, And they asked him, and said unto him, Why baptizest thou then, if thou be not that Christ, nor Elias, neither that prophet?
Here we see the delegation challenging Johns right to baptize after challenging his right to preach.
They said, you are not the messiah, you have no mandate from Malachi or Moses so on what ground do you have to introduce a new religious rite not ordered by the law?
Johns baptism was a baptism of repentance and Jews needed no repentance, they were God's chosen people.
John does not answer the religious question as Jesus did not answer Nicodemous' question in John, Chapter 3 but went right to the needs of the questioners heart.
We are so easily turned to unimportant questions in our daily walk.
John, by his answer indicated what was important and what was not important. He pointed them to the one that they knew not, but the one that they would have to deal with, the one we all will have to bow before.
Here they were asking foolish questions when the One who had been foretold of old, the one who was the hope of every faithful Hebrew heart, the one that every Hebrew mother expected, was standing among them.
Is it any different today?
We dwell on questions of religion instead of questions of eternal worth.
Verse 26, 27, John answered them, saying, I baptize with water: but there standeth one among you, whom ye know not; He it is, who coming after me is preferred before me, whose shoe's lachet I am not worthy to unloose.
He admits to water baptism but goes to something of much greater value then a symbolic rite.
John knew it was vanity to discuss the rite of baptism with men that were in their sin.
They needed to enter into a relationship with a person that would baptize their heart in the cleansing blood of Christ and wash them whiter then snow.
The lesson from John the Baptist is for us to go to the heart of the gospel and not argue the quibbling issues of religious practice.
John convicts them of ignorance.
The lamb of God is standing among them and they are spiritually dead to his presence.
John exalts Christ and takes a position in comparison to Christ of one who is not even worthy to serve him in the lacing of his sandals.
John is saying that I have no right to be even talking about myself when one so exalted is among us.
This is the heart of John and all who call themselves disciples of Christ.
Note: There is no indication that the delegation asked further questions after they had been satisfied by Johns answer.
No further inquiry about this one that John had lifted up.
This shows the total blindness in the world of religion systems.
Beware of being caught up in any system instead of the person of Jesus Christ.
Verse 28, These things were done in Bethabara beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing.
Most believe this referred to a place of crossing the Jordan, called "House of Passage" John's baptism, at this place was a symbolic passing from the corrupt apostate Jewish system to the little remnant that John was preparing for the coming of Christ
Verse 29,30,31, The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. This is he of whom I said, After me cometh a man which is preferred before me: for he was before me. And I knew him not: but that he should be made manifest to Israel, therefore am I come baptizing with water.
This is the next day following the meeting with the delegation.
John uses the same words he used yesterday and reminds those who heard him speak that there is a man amongst us who is preferred before me.
The delegation had been interested in a prophet, or a king to deliver them from Rome, but they had no interest in a sacrifice for sin.
John did not introduce Jesus to the world as the Son of God, or the Christ of God, not as the Word of God but John presented the Messiah in the very office that they had most need of, a Lamb that would take away the sin that they were so blinded by.
So today the world will tolerate Jesus the teacher, Jesus the social reformer, Jesus the shepherd, and the Jesus of Bethlehem but the one the world is most in need of is the sacrificial lamb of God that takes away the sin we are so desperately mired in.
John points to the one that all the sacrifices of the Old Testament had foreshadowed.
This is the Lamb that Abraham had said that God would himself provide, this is the lamb the Isaiah had said would be led to the slaughter, but it is also the lamb of Revelation seated upon the eternal throne of God.
What does John mean when he refers to the lamb of God?
He is God's choice for the sacrifice and as such must then satisfy God's requirements. I Peter 1:19 says he was a lamb without blemish or without spot. Isaiah says he was led, not driven.
A voluntary lamb, a lamb who goes willingly to carry out the will of the Father, a lamb whose shed blood is sufficient to cover the sins of the whole world so the world is without excuse.
John's ministry was limited to his call for repentance and cleansing but the nation of individuals needed much more than John could give, they needed the Lamb of God.
Verse 32,33,34, And John bare record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him. And I knew him not: but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining on him, the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. And I saw, and bare record that this is the Son of God.
Here John calls attention to the real baptizer. The person of Jesus Christ.
The dove is the bird of love and sorrow.
Appropriate symbol of Christ.
When the Holy Spirit descended on the disciples at Pentecost it appeared as tongues of fire.
Fire indicates judgment which the disciples needed but here the Spirit is not of judgment because the Christ needed no judgment but here we see the Spirit depicted as both love and sorrow.
Note that the dove abode on him.
It remained on him, it did not come and go but was a constant presence on him.
John reminds us that he did not know the Christ before God's anointing of him by the Spirit.
This was no pre-arranged meeting of the two.
God kept them apart and John was without knowledge as to who was the Lamb of God.
But John is careful to note that the same one who had sent him to baptize told him that Jesus was the Christ.
John already knew God, he had tested him by experience and this same one confirmed to him that Jesus was the Christ.
As if this witness is not enough John bare record through a distinct witnessing statement that this is the Son of God.
We see then that John the Baptist bore a seven fold witness to the excellency of the one that he announced:
The witness of His pre-existence, his Lordship, his immeasurable superiority, his sacrificial work, his moral perfection, his divine right to baptize with the Holy Spirit, and his divine Sonship.
As I've said in the past, what more faithful witness is there to believe.
A modern scholar who is more enlightened than the witnesses of old, a witness like John the Baptist who had no purpose but to prepare the way for another.
He is one witness who God expects us to believe.
The next lesson will be "The presentation of John's disciples" 1:35-51 as we continue with the Period of Consideration or The Presentation of the Object of Belief, the Lord Jesus Christ. |