John 1: 19-34
The Suffering Servant Messiah
19 Now this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” 20 He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ.” 21 And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” And he answered, “No.” 22 Then they said to him, “Who are you, that we may give an answer to those who sent us? What do you say about yourself?” 23 He said: “I am ‘The voice of one crying in the wilderness: “Make straight the way of the LORD,” as the prophet Isaiah said.” 24 Now those who were sent were from the Pharisees. 25 And they asked him, saying, “Why then do you baptize if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?” 26 John answered them, saying, “I baptize with water, but there stands One among you Whom you do not know. 27 It is He who, coming after me, Is preferred before me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose.” 28 These things were done in Bethabara beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing. 29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! 30 This is He of whom I said, ‘After me comes a Man who is preferred before me, for He was before me.’ 31 I did not know Him; but that He should be revealed to Israel, therefore I came baptizing with water.” 32 And John bore witness, saying, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and He remained upon Him. 33 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.’ 34 And I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God.”
For our brothers and sisters new to the faith I want to just quickly mention a little about John The Baptist. If you look at the Gospel of Luke you will see in the beginning chapters information on his birth.” There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the division of Abijah. His wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth”. Please note that Zacharias was a priest. In the religious leadership of the Jewish nation you have groups called Pharisees and Sadducees.
Under Almighty God’s direction however these groups were not listed. Under The Holy El Shaddai Almighty God’s instruction there was to be a High Priest to direct the worship and sacrifices of the people. You will note that the Holy Spirit mentions that Zacharias’s wife Elizabeth was a descendent of Aaron the first High Priest. All future priests after Aaron were to be his descendents. This however changed due to corruption.
To assist the High Priest in the service in the Temple The Lord assigned members from the tribe of Levi to be priests and other men selected to help them.
John the Baptist’s mom was Elizabeth who was a relative of Mary [Jesus’ mom]. It appears that John went and lived in the desert community and probably did not know Jesus personally because Jesus grew up in Nazareth. It will not be until they are grown men that they come across each other’s path.
19 Now this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?”
Please notice that the Pharisees and Sadducees sent priests and Levites to check out John’ ministry. They did this for a couple of reasons. For one thing our Holy Master instructed the Israelites to do so. In the book of Deuteronomy chapter 13 we read about this instruction “1 “If there arises among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams, and he gives you a sign or a wonder, 2 and the sign or the wonder comes to pass, of which he spoke to you, saying, ‘Let us go after other gods’—which you have not known—‘and let us serve them,’ 3 you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams, for the LORD your God is testing you to know whether you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. 4 You shall walk after the LORD your God and fear Him, and keep His commandments and obey His voice; you shall serve Him and hold fast to Him. 5 But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has spoken in order to turn you away from the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of bondage, to entice you from the way in which the LORD your God commanded you to walk. So you shall put away the evil from your midst.
I believe that they had heard about the success of John’s ministry and they were jealous and wanted to know how this guy was so popular.
20 He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ.” 21 And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” And he answered, “No.” 22 Then they said to him, “Who are you, that we may give an answer to those who sent us? What do you say about yourself?” 23 He said: “I am ‘The voice of one crying in the wilderness: “Make straight the way of the LORD,” as the prophet Isaiah said.” 24 Now those who were sent were from the Pharisees. 25 And they asked him, saying, “Why then do you baptize if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?”
The Jews felt that there were three important men suppose to show up in Israel. First of all according to the prophet Daniel in chapter 9 the world was waiting for God’s special anointed One to come it Israel. We read, “Seventy weeks are determined for your people and for your holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sins, to make reconciliation for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy. 25 “Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the command to restore and build Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince, there shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; The street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublesome times. 26 “And after the sixty-two weeks Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself; and the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end of it shall be with a flood, and till the end of the war desolations are determined. 27 Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week; but in the middle of the week He shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate, even until the consummation, which is determined, is poured out on the desolate.”
Then they were also waiting for a promised special prophet whom Moses prophesied. In Deuteronomy chapter 18 this promise is listed, “ 15 “The LORD your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren. Him you shall hear, 16 according to all you desired of the LORD your God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God, nor let me see this great fire anymore, lest I die.’ 17 “And the LORD said to me: ‘What they have spoken is good. 18 I will raise up for them a Prophet like you from among their brethren, and will put My words in His mouth, and He shall speak to them all that I command Him. 19 And it shall be that whoever will not hear My words, which He speaks in My name, I will require it of him. 20 But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in My name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die.’ 21 And if you say in your heart, ‘How shall we know the word which the LORD has not spoken?’— 22 when a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the thing does not happen or come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him.”
Also, the Jews were awaiting the return of Elijah who did not die but was taken to heaven in a fiery chariot. The prophet Malachi said this regarding Elijah’s return, “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD. 6 And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.”
The threefold question demonstrates the wide range of views. They did not conceive how one person could fulfill all the promises. Note how John’s replies become shorter and shorter. He did not want men to look at him. He was not the Word, it was Jesus Who was the Word.
On being pressed he connected himself with the words of Isaiah 40.3. He claimed not to be an important personage but only to be a voice, ‘the preparer of the way’, pointing to and making ready for the coming activity of God. Just as when great kings were making a journey men would go before them to straighten up the roads and make them passable, so John had come to prepare the way for another, by straightening up men’s lives and removing from them all the hindrances that had built up in them.
They were puzzled by his baptism. They recognized that it must have some great religious significance but it was one they did not understand. Nor were they sure where he felt he had obtained the authority to perform such a baptism. If he did not see himself as the expected Messiah, or as Elijah, or as the great Prophet, why was he baptizing? They almost certainly saw his baptizing as a special aspect of ceremonial washing, although recognizing that it was once for all, and wanted to know his credentials for introducing such an idea. To bring about such a new approach he had to be someone of outstanding importance.
26 John answered them, saying, “I baptize with water, but there stands One among you Whom you do not know. 27 It is He who, coming after me, Is preferred before me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose.”
His reply was that he was baptizing with water in preparation for the coming of Another, someone Who was already standing among them, and was yet unknown to them, someone so great that he, John, was not worthy even to untie His sandals.
You have to stop and see the significance here. The Jewish leaders sent their servants to John to investigate if he was someone important. John is a witness to Jesus, and his emphasis is more on ‘there stands One among you whom you do not know, even He who comes after me, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie’. The Holy Spirit wants it to be clear that John simply prepares the way for Another Who Is The Important One Who Is so far superior to him that he is not even fit to unfasten His sandals. When men visited a home someone would unfasten their sandals, a job done by the lowest servant. John is here saying that Jesus will be so superior to him that he is not even worthy to be the lowest of servants to Jesus. John admits that he is such a lowly servant that he is not even worthy to untie the shoes of The One Who Is now walking in their midst.
I also find it quite interesting in when I read the Gospel of Luke chapter 7 verse 8 that our Lord Jesus Christ said that John was the greatest of all prophets. Then, if such a great person felt that he wasn’t worthy to be the lowest of a slave then how much more should I be willing to lay aside any restraint to serve my Lord and Master Jesus Christ. When I finally came to understand how awesome and magnificent He Is then my importance fades away.
28 These things were done in Bethabara beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing
We are now told that this took place in ‘Bethany, beyond Jordan’. The appellation is to distinguish the village from the better known Bethany, and indeed ‘Bethany beyond Jordan’ was so little known that it was soon changed in manuscripts to the better known Bethabara to indicate where it was. This is one indication of the familiarity of the author with Palestine. These things were rooted in history as the use of an insignificant place name confirms.
29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!
We learn hear how the writer, who was John, was present and saw what took place. He would never forget those days when he first saw Jesus, would you? And prominent among those memories was the way in which John the Baptist, when he saw Jesus coming towards him, turned to the others with him and declared to them Who Jesus Was. ‘See’, he says, ‘the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world’.
I had mentioned that the Jews were looking for three men selected by God Almighty to come on the scene. They had come to believe that there were two men who would be God’s Messiah or anointed ones. One would liberate the people from the oppression they fell into and another one would be a suffering servant.
Here John is connecting Jesus with the suffering servant and prophet spoken of in Isaiah 53, the lamb who was led to the slaughter, who was wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities, and who bore our sins and carried our sorrows. He would suffer for the sins of his people, as He Himself would later confirm.
Every morning and evening a lamb was sacrificed in the temple for the sins of the people. The Suffering Servant Messiah was prophesied that He would be led to the slaughter like a lamb to pay the penalty for sin, a life had to be given – and God chose to provide the sacrifice Himself. The sins of the world were removed when Jesus died as the perfect sacrifice. This is the way our sins are forgiven. The ‘sin of the world’ means everyone’s sin, the sin of each individual. Jesus paid the price of your sin by His death. You can receive forgiveness by confessing your sin to Him and asking for His forgiveness.
30 This is He of whom I said, ‘after me comes a Man who is preferred before me, for He was before me.’
John the Baptist now expands on what he has said. Here was the One for whom he was preparing the way, the One who ranked before him because of His inherent superiority and who by right of that superiority would take over.
31 I did not know Him; but that He should be revealed to Israel, therefore I came baptizing with water.”
Now put yourself in John The Baptist’s position. He had been given a ministry to do by God. He was told to prepare the way for God’s Anointed yet he was not told exactly Who the Special One Is. In proper obedience he set out and did what he was instructed to do. As you know he was fruitful in doing what he was told to do. He was given a hint though on how he would recognize who God’s Special Anointed One Is.
32 And John bore witness, saying, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and He remained upon Him. 33 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.’ 34 And I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God.”
Some visible manifestation was observed when the Spirit came on Jesus who reminded people of a dove. The dove was a symbol of purity and gentleness. It was also a sign that the time of judgment had come to an end
We note here that John was actually commissioned to carry out the acted parable of drenching people as a symbol of drenching in the Holy Spirit, just as God had of old sent His prophets to act out symbols before the people.
John the Baptist admits that he had not realized at first who Jesus was, even though Jesus was his cousin, but he had come to recognize Jesus’ superiority to himself, and he now stresses that he had come to realize at Jesus’ baptism that He was the One for Whom he was preparing, for he had seen the Holy Spirit descending and remaining on Him, and had realized from this that He was the One Who would drench in the Holy Spirit as promised by the prophets.
