Who Are You? Series

During Sunday school, a pastor, who was teaching the adult class, selected a middle-aged couple to act out the burning bush scene from Exodus 3. He asked the husband to supply the voice for God and his wife to read Moses' lines.

All went well until they got to verse 15. The wife, as Moses, mistook her husband's dialogue for her own and read, “Say to the Israelites, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers—‘”

The pastor interrupted her. “Wait a minute. You're not God.”

Without missing a beat, her husband deadpanned, “I've been trying to tell her that for 18 years” (Laura Lee Allen, Daytona Beach Shores, FL, Christian Reader, “Lite Fare;” www.PreachingToday.com).

We laugh, but there are some who have too high a view of themselves, and that usually leads to a fall (Proverbs 16:18).

Somebody once said, “If you don’t toot your own horn, nobody else will.” But is that true? Do you get ahead by tooting your own horn, or is there a better way to greatness and true success?

Jesus said of one of his contemporaries, “among those born of women none is greater than John” (Luke 7:28). He was talking about John the Baptist, the last of the great prophets and the forerunner of the Messiah Himself.

So, how did John the Baptist achieve true greatness? Did he toot his own horn, or did he find another way? Well, if you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to the Gospel of John, chapter 1, John 1, where we see how John the Baptist, or how any of us, can achieve true greatness.

John 1:19 And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” (ESV)

The religious leaders hear about a new preacher in the Judean wilderness, and they’re curious. “Who are you?” they ask John. Now, if John ever wanted to toot his own horn, here is his opportunity! After all, he is just starting out in ministry. This is his opportunity to establish his credibility. This is his opportunity to pad the resume and tell the important people who he really is. After all, their endorsements could open some big doors of opportunity and influence.

For example, John could say, “You remember when Zacharias the priest was struck dumb in the Temple? You remember that the angel told him he was going to have a son, a great son, a son who would be filled with the Holy Spirit from his mother’s womb, a son who would go forth in the spirit of Elijah, a son who would be the forerunner of the Messiah Himself (Luke 1:13-17). Well men, I am that son!” That’s what John the Baptist could have honestly said. Instead…

John 1:20 He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ” (ESV).

John told them he was not the Messiah.

John 1:21 And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” And he answered, “No” (ESV).

The Old Testament prophet Malachi predicted the coming of Elijah as a forerunner to the Messiah (Malachi 4:5). And Moses predicted the coming of another prophet like him. But John denies that he is either of them.

John 1:22-23 So they said to him, “Who are you? We need to give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?” He said, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as the prophet Isaiah said” [in Isaiah 40:3] (ESV).

When forced to give an answer, John simply says, “I am a voice.” That’s all, just a voice. Jesus Christ is the Word, the Living Word of God. I’m just a voice, here to tell you about that Word. I’m just a voice, here to prepare the way for the Lord.

John 1:24-25 (Now they had been sent from the Pharisees.) They asked him, “Then why are you baptizing, if you are neither the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?” (ESV)

If you are nobody special, why then are you baptizing people? You see, Jewish priests baptized Gentiles who wanted to convert to Judaism. Here, John (a lay person) is baptizing Jews! Why?

John 1:26-28 John answered them, “I baptize with water, but among you stands one you do not know, even he who comes after me, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.” These things took place in Bethany across the Jordan, where John was baptizing (ESV).

John was baptizing Jews, because he knew they needed to repent as much as the Gentiles. They needed to recognize their own sin and change their attitudes about the Messiah, a person they do not yet know.