The Witness of John the Baptist Part One

Today's sermon is the witness of John the Baptist, and we'll do this in two parts.

So this is part one, the witness of John the Baptist. And we'll be looking today at chapter one versus 19 through 42.

And we'll we'll get to probably up to about verse 34. That's the game plan.

The witness of John the Baptist, part one, chapter one versus 19 through 42.

And we want to put 19 through 34 under the microscope this morning. So we'll start by reading this passage in its entirety.

In my Bible, it says a voice crying out in the wilderness. So let's together read this passage.

Please stand with me for the reading of God's word. John chapter one, starting in verse 19.

A voice in the wilderness, verse 19. And this is the witness of John.

When the Jews sent to him priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, who are you?

And he confessed and did not deny, but confessed, I am not the Christ.

And they asked him, what then? Are you Elijah? And he said, I am not.

Are you the prophet? And he answered, no. Therefore, they said to him, who are you?

So that we may give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?

He said, I am a voice of one crying in the wilderness. Make straight the way of the

Lord, as Isaiah the prophet said. Now they had been sent from the

Pharisees and they asked him and said to him, why then are you baptizing?

If you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the prophet, John answered them and saying,

I baptize with water, but among you stands one whom you do not know.

This one is he who comes after me, of whom I am not worthy to untie the strap of his sandal.

These things took place in Bethany, beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing. On the next day, he saw

Jesus coming to 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 has been ahead of me, for he existed before me.

I did not know him, but so that he might be manifested to Israel, I came baptizing with water.

And John bore witness, saying, I have beheld the spirit descending as a dove out of heaven, and he abided on him.

And I did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, the one upon whom you see the spirit descending and abiding on him, this is the one who baptizes with the

Holy Spirit. And I myself have seen and have borne witness that this is the

Son of God. On the next day, John again was standing with two of his disciples, and he looked at Jesus as he walked and said, behold, the

Lamb of God. And the two disciples heard him speak and follow

Jesus. And when Jesus turned and noticed them following, he said to them, what do you seek?

They said to him, Rabbi, which translated means teacher, where are you staying?

And he said to them, come and you will see. So they came and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day.

It was about the 10th hour. One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was

Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. He first found his own brother, Simon, and said to him, we have found the

Messiah, which translated means Christ. He brought him to Jesus. When Jesus looked at him, he said, you are

Simon, the son of John. You shall be called Cephas, which is translated

Peter. And we'll stop there. The first three days of narrative, you may be seated.

The first really four days is what we're going to see concluding chapter one. But I want to focus on these first three days having to do with the first three days, really this recorded history of John the

Baptist's ministry as a forerunner. Now, we think about these passages.

I put together just a few slides to show you. I want to try to make this make sense to us as we go back into this really important narrative.

We've transitioned from now out of the theological statements in the first 18 verses. Now we're in a narrative.

This is a historical account of what happened with John the Baptist. You know, in thinking about this, these are truth claims that John the

Baptist is making about the true identity of Jesus Christ. And we can think about this in our modern, you know, vernacular, contemporary time.

Our society and culture has turned Jesus into something that no longer resembles the

Jesus of the Bible. You know, a few weeks ago we looked at that sort of silly commercial from the

Super Bowl, he gets us. But understanding that the society and culture wants to make

Jesus into something other than what he truly is. So as we look at what

John, the apostle John, has recorded in this account of John the

Baptist and the claims that the Baptist is making about the true identity of Christ, we can see it doesn't add up.

They're not the same person. Of course, we know that the society and culture wants to turn

Jesus into something that doesn't save. This is all a demonic attack. This is really a satanic reimagining.

And so let me show you a few things that I think will help you to understand what I'm talking about. I think in the 90s or 2000s this came around.

You guys might remember this. Jesus is my homeboy. This was a really popular one.

So this is what I'm talking about. This is the society or the culture making

Jesus reachable for people that actually don't even believe in God.

Jesus is my homeboy. This came in a few iterations. Here's another one. This is the

Jesus of the world. Jesus is my homeboy. That was in the 90s, 2000s.

Now, we can think about this demonic or satanic attack really even, you know, going back, let's say, approximately 500 years.

Of course, here we see the picture of Martin Luther. What we know of as being biblical truth is because of this event in history where this brother put on the door of Wittenberg Castle some challenges to the theology of the

Church of Rome of that day, of Roman Catholicism. And from this, then the scriptures were unlocked out of the

Latin and translated from the Hebrew and Greek into the modern languages of the common people. And something happened.

When God's Word was unlocked, there was an explosion of truth. The gospel was proclaimed.

You know, God's Word became available for all people. And there was a reformation. And you think about what a wonderful time in human history, the reformation, that we can look at the

Bible and read it in our own language. That biblical fidelity was someone took a stand and said, this is the gospel.

You're saved by God's grace through faith, a different kind of teaching.

It revolutionized the world at that time. And so, how do we think of Reformation Day? Well, this is what

Reformation Day turned into for us, trick or treat. You see, there's a satanic, demonic attack against God's Word, against Christ, against the gospel.

You know, think about that. We went from this to a day where we celebrate witches, ghouls, and goblins, and it's all about candy and having fun.

You know, most of us don't even think about the Reformation when Halloween comes around and trick or treating.

You know, we can even just go down the calendar year, thinking about Christmas, the birth of our

Lord, the manger. What an amazing reality we have here in the gospel.

We have this amazing truth that the Creator of the universe came into His creation so that He might make peace between sinful man and Himself.

What an amazing event. Christmas, the time of year where we ponder

God's greatness, His mercy, His compassion, that Christ, the

Word became flesh, even as we've been learning in the gospel of John, that the Creator of the universe took on human flesh and then lived a perfect life and died.

This amazing time of year that we get to celebrate, but what do we really do during Christmas time?

It's presents and Christmas trees. For the unbelieving world, many of them do not even have a connection that this actually isn't about, like, your

Christmas decorations and cool Christmas lights. How big is your tree? I remember seeing one post on, like,

Instagram, and a lady had, like, a Christmas tree, and it was, like, all these, just a pile of presents. And her thing was, like, oh, this year we spent about $3 ,000 on the presents.

Oh, too bad, next year we'll get the pile even higher. And I'm just thinking, like, that's the world. That's the world.

We took the birth of the Creator and turned it into Christmas trees and presents.

Of course, this is a satanic, a demonic element, the anti -Christ spirit that exists in the world.

We could probably think about this. Even last month, we had

Jesus is my true Valentine. You guys may have seen this stuff around on social media. People are wearing shirts,

Jesus is my Valentine. Yeah, so I don't know what it's going to be this month. Jesus is my leprechaun.

We think about Resurrection Sunday. Well, what do we call this time of year? Easter. You know,

Resurrection Sunday, the death and the raising of the

Lord Jesus, we see this kind of stuff. You know, well, you think about this. This is Resurrection Sunday.

The Lord died for us. He died for us. But we have this holiday.

Nobody loves Jesus like, you know. I mean, this is the kind of cute stuff. T -shirts, social media, this stuff is everywhere.

I even saw this one. You know, we went from this, this is the reason that we come together as brothers and sisters in Christ to, oh,

Jesus and the Easter Bunny, let's collect Easter eggs. Something is going on. This is demonic.

It's satanic. And the true reason that we have this time of year, you know, this is

Easter. Easter is in March this year, the end of the month. You know, it's just a sad statement.

I want to make you sensitive to this. This is the Jesus that Satan is presenting to the world.

And even the newest thing is this, this thing called the Riz. I don't know if you guys know about this.

Probably the younger generation does. Riz, if you've ever heard this term. Riz is if you do like a pickup line or you're attractive to the opposite sex.

So you have like a peel, you know, so you do a pickup line. You have good

Riz. I think, how could they do this? What connection could there be here? So this is what they're doing today.

He is risen. He is risen. We got him slamming, doing a dunk.

They're selling shirts. And just to show you that, you know, we went from this. This is the reason that we are gathered here to worship.

Christ died for us. God raised him from the dead. Redeemed sinner, saved by the grace of God into this kind of stuff.

He is risen. He's risen. You know, I almost didn't, I almost thought I don't need to show these images.

Let's just jump into the word. But I really felt convicted too because after I was putting this together,

I saw one online and it was about a five -year -old girl wearing this shirt. Parents just think it's so cute and funny.

It's a little kid, you know, five, six -year -old little girl wearing that t -shirt.

So you can go online, buy that t -shirt and guess what? That's the hip, cool version of Jesus that is being presented to the world today.

He is risen. Absolutely just gross stuff.

You know, we need to return to this. We need to return to the truth of who

Jesus is according to the word of God. And John the Baptist is going to tell us today who

Jesus really is. This is a historical narrative. There's three days.

We're going to cover, Lord willing, the first two days. We need to get out of all these weird gimmicks and just this stuff.

We're not going to reach anybody with that. That has no power. That's deceptive and it leads people astray, quite frankly.

We need to return to who Jesus really is. Not silly gimmicks.

Not silly gimmicks. No matter how harmless or silly they may seem, these things are demonic and a satanic misrepresentation of who

Jesus is. But we can find the true Jesus according to the testimony of the scripture.

This sermon is about the true identity of Jesus, as claimed by the gospel according to the apostle

John, as seen through the eyewitness account of John the

Baptist. In verses 19 through 42, the apostle describes the witness of John the

Baptist over a three -day period to three different groups so that you can see the first of many witnesses in this gospel account that prove

Jesus is the Messiah. Jesus is the Messiah.

Three days, three groups, three testimonies. Day one, the first group and the first claim is verses 19 through 28.

Day two, the second group and the second claim is verses 29 through 34.

Day three, the third group and the third claim is verses 35 through 42.

And Lord willing, we'll save that for next week. So part one, the witness of John the Baptist, we're going to try to cover the first group and the first claim on day one and the second group and the second claim on day two.

Really three days, three groups, and three testimonies. And it starts in verse 19.

And this is the witness of John when the Jews sent to him priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, who are you?

Who are you? In verse 19, the apostle draws us back to verse 7 to remind us of the purpose of John the

Baptist's ministry. Verse 7, he came as a witness to bear witness about the light so that all might believe through him.

And this is the witness of John. Of course, John the Baptist was the son of Zechariah and Elizabeth.

He was the cousin of Jesus. While the Jews, likely referring to the religious elites of the day, had sent priests and Levites to John, the

Baptist himself was from a priestly family that belonged to the tribe of Levi. We can even look at the

Gospel of Luke here for help. Luke chapter 1, in the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named

Zechariah of the division of Abijan. He had a wife from the daughters of Aaron and her name was

Elizabeth. Well, we know in 1 Chronicles 24, Abijan is listed as a division of the

Levites. So the Jews here are questioning him, but he descends from this priestly family himself.

The Jews very likely refers to the Sanhedrin, the main governing body of Jewish people who had sent a delegation to question

John the Baptist, and they ask him, who are you? Who are you? So when word got back, you think about this, the word got back to really the top players of the day that a message of repentance and baptism for the forgiveness of sin had reached their ears.

How did they respond? And not trying to denigrate the priests or the Levites, but really what did they do?

They sent their messengers. They sent their Aaron boys. Who are you? Who are you? And the

Baptist confessed. And he confessed and did not deny, but confessed,

I am not the Christ. I am not the Christ. To concede something that is factual or true, he confessed.

This has a judicial connotation. He made it crystal clear. I am not the Messiah. I am not the

Messiah. But notice the apostle adds in that the Baptist did not deny. He's not backing down.

He has a reason to be there, but he is emphatic. No, I am not the Christ.

And they just asked, who are you? So obviously John understood where they were going before they actually got there.

There's an implication that they're expecting the Christ. And he says, no, I am not the

Christ. And they asked him, what then? What then? Are you Elijah? He said,

I am not. Are you the prophet? And he answered, no. There's an implication in the follow -up that they had an expectation to the

Messiah and the forgiveness of sins. So now they pivot and they're really like covering their bases.

What about Elijah? We know from the account from Luke that there was a divine announcement from the angel

Gabriel that John would be a type of Elijah. Again, Luke chapter 1.

And he will go before him, that he is John the Baptist. He will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers back to the children and the disobedient to the attitude of the righteous, to make ready a people prepared for the

Lord. That's John's ministry perfectly illustrated in the divine announcement.

But this is really very telling that the Jews were expecting the Messiah, but they had a misunderstanding of the

Old Testament and specifically the prophet Malachi. They were likely referring to what was said by the prophet regarding the coming of the

Messiah, but they were not privy to the angelic pronouncement by Gabriel. They just didn't have all of the information.

They were looking for the actual Elijah. Malachi chapter 4. Behold, I am going to send you

Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and awesome day of Yahweh. And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land, devoting it to destruction.

Really exactly what the angel Gabriel said. You hear even the same language in there. But these

Aaron boys missed what the prophet Malachi had said earlier in his writing. Malachi chapter 3 says, behold,

I am going to send my messenger and he will prepare the way before me and the

Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight.

Behold, he is coming, says Yahweh of hosts. John said, no, I am not. No, I'm not him.

And their follow -up hints at their desperation and confusion. They're really grasping at straws at this point.

Are you the prophet? What about the prophet? They were referring to the promise of a prophet like Moses, Deuteronomy 18.

Yahweh, your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers.

You shall listen to him, not Elijah. Let's go even further back. How about the prophet?

John says, no, no, no. He said, I am a voice of one crying in the wilderness.

Make straight the way of the Lord, as Isaiah the prophet said.

So now we just see really the exasperation. You think about even that section there, their confusion.

He says, no, I'm not the prophet. They don't know where to go. John's going to take them where to go.

But you can see the way that they talk to him. Who are you? Who are you?

It's almost like we don't really care who you are. We need to give an answer to those who sent us.

What do you say about yourself? In verse 22, we just see the exasperation.

In a sense, it's almost like they don't care. They were just sent by the bosses back in Jerusalem.

And it makes you wonder, would they have believed anything he said? We'll see their intellectual dishonesty and how they respond when

John does finally explain who he is. For now, they don't actually care. He's going to tell them. He's going to point them in the right direction.

But they're Aaron boys. They can't go back empty -handed to their bosses. And so we see that insert in verse 22.

But what an amazing statement that John makes, quoting Scripture and then applying it to himself.

I am a voice. I am a voice of one crying in the wilderness, make straight the path, make straight the way of the

Lord. And then he's quoting Isaiah the prophet. Now comes this crystal clear response.

This is who I am. This is who I am. John the Baptist quotes the prophet

Isaiah. And what he's quoting, we can see in its full context, is really helpful for us.

This is Isaiah chapter 40. Isaiah 40 says this, Comfort, O comfort my people, says your

God. Speak to the heart of Jerusalem and call out to her that her warfare has been fulfilled, that her iniquity has been removed, that she has received from the hand of Yahweh double for all her sins.

A voice is calling. Prepare the way for Yahweh in the wilderness. Make smooth in the desert a highway for our

God. Let every valley be lifted up and every mountain and hill be made low. And let the rough ground become a plain and the rugged terrain a broad valley.

Then the glory of Yahweh will be revealed and all flesh will see it together. For the mouth of Yahweh has spoken.

A voice says, call out. Then he answered, what shall

I call out? All flesh is grass and all its loving kindness is like the flower of the field.

The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of Yahweh blows upon it.

Surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our

God stands forever. So John the Baptist quoted and applied

Isaiah, specifically verse three, Isaiah chapter 40, verse three, to himself.

But we must have think there was pride here. This is devoid of pride. The next day he'll make it clear.

He gets his marching orders from God. So John didn't come to this on his own.

I like what one commentator said here. In humility, John compared himself to a voice rather than a person, thus focusing the attention exclusively upon Christ.

John said, I am not the Christ. I'm the one the prophets spoke of that will point the way to the

Christ. I'm here to make the hearts of the people ready to receive the Messiah.

Now, they had been sent from the Pharisees. So the apostle adds this note in verse 24 to make it clear where these

Aaron boys came from. It seems like he's pointing out a connection that reveals the hearts of the

Pharisees. The religious elite of the day were arrogant, unbelieving, condescending.

It's the example of intellectual dishonesty. And they asked him and said to him, why then?

And here you can kind of hear it in their, in their response. Why then are you baptizing if you're not the

Christ, not Elijah, nor the prophet? You can kind of hear the arrogance. They wanted to know.

They've asked him who he is. And it makes you wonder, even if he had said he was the Christ, I don't think they would have believed him.

Certainly, even after Christ appears in the witness of his signed wonders and miracles that attest to his messiahship, they don't believe.

This line of questioning is really a foreshadow of the arrogance of the Sanhedrin influenced by the family of the high priest.

These Aaron boys are like their masters. What gives you the right to baptize?

What gives you the right? They reject John's authority because they reject the authority of the prophet

Isaiah. They reject the authority of the word of God. Even if you are the one

Isaiah spoke of, you're usurping our authority and we don't like it. It's almost like, who do you think you are?

Calling people to repent? That's the job of our masters. How dare you?

In their doubting minds, John had identified himself merely as a voice and they completely missed the profound connection.

The Old Testament clearly associated the coming of Messiah with spiritual cleansing and repentance.

The Messiah was here. They were questioning his authority for baptizing.

They missed the significance of his claim of his position as forerunner of Messiah.

The leaders clearly didn't like that John was gathering a following. It seems they didn't care about the truth.

They were sent as mouthpieces to deny John's right to gather disciples by baptism.

Speaking as parrots for their masters, they disclaimed John's connection with the Messiah's kingdom.

John answered them saying, I baptize with water, but among you stands one whom you do not know.

John answered their objection by saying the Messiah is already here and what I'm doing points to him.

But you wouldn't recognize him just like you don't recognize me. Clearly the Christ had come and this gives us a clue that John was expecting to see him.

This statement is made before Jesus had been baptized. We'll make that clear. He'll make that clear the next day.

The point the apostle is making is John's witness is that Jesus is in their midst.

The word for stand signifies to be at a place, but the emphasis is less on standing than on being or existing.

He's here. He's come. And then we have verse 27. John says, this one is he who comes after me of whom

I am not worthy to untie the strap of his sandal. And here is the first claim.

Verse 27 really ties back to verse 23. There is a nuanced meaning in the claim that the man,

Jesus of Nazareth is far greater than John the

Baptist. Jesus is the Messiah. John is not. No comparison.

Not even close. Not in the same ballpark. Here we see John's humility and acknowledgement of the

Messiah's status. He says, I'm not even worthy to untie the strap on his sandals.

Not in the same league. The apostle uses the word worthy to describe this interaction from the

Baptist pertaining to being correspondingly fitting or appropriate.

This is to be worthy, to be fit, to be deserving. You know, like just visualize the humble posture of stooping down and untying or tying another person's shoelace.

John says, I am not fit or worthy to touch his footwear.

I am so far beneath this one. Because this one who is among you is the

Messiah. I'm merely a messenger called by God. I am nothing. The first claim or testimony from John is that Jesus is far superior, far superior to him.

The nuance is that he has identified himself as the one the prophet

Isaiah spoke of as a voice crying out, making the way for the Messiah. In light of that amazing claim and factual truth,

Jesus the Messiah is so far superior to John as the forerunner that John says,

I'm not worthy to untie his sandals. I'm not worthy to even touch his feet.

These things took place in Bethany beyond the Jordan where John was baptizing.

And that's the first day. The apostle leaves us with some really important factual data.

He gives us the specific place and timing of this interaction. Here you can see the just perfect accuracy in the historical account.

These facts thrown in here. An important factual inclusion that helps solidify our understanding of the factual nature of this eyewitness testimony.

There is one small interpretive challenge here I'll just bring before you, not really, really, really small, but still important to point out.

Depending upon what translation you have, as one commentator pointed out, some translations render this word

Bethabara. Some feel that John had incorrectly identified Bethany as the place of these events.

The solution is that two Bethany's existed. Pretty simple. Two Bethany's. Intended example, you think one near Jerusalem where Mary, Martha and Lazarus live and one, quote, beyond the

Jordan, near the region of Galilee. So since John took great pains to identify the other

Bethany's close proximity to Jerusalem, he most likely was referring here to that other town with the same name.

This is not the Bethany of Lazarus, but another of the same name because it's distinguishes lying beyond the

Jordan on the east. John the Baptist's ministry was so powerful that the religious leaders and their followers questioned whether he was the promised

Messiah. You can think about what a large gathering it would have taken for them to become aware of what was happening out in the middle of the desert, in the middle of the wilderness.

So this faction is forming, this crowd is gathering, something is going on. We need to know what's happening out here.

Is the Messiah here? And they're sending them out. But just thinking about that, the religious leaders and their followers questioned whether John the

Baptist was the Messiah. I read this interesting fact. One religion exists to this day that reveres

John as their main prophet, the Mandeans. The Mandeans were originally native speakers of Mandaic.

This was a Semitic language that evolved from Eastern Middle Aramaic before switching to colloquial

Iraqi, Arabic, and modern Persian. Mandaic is mainly preserved as a liturgical language.

So in other words, it's a ceremonial language. During the century's first decade, this century's first decade, the indigenous

Mandaic community of Iraq, which used to number about 60 to 70 ,000 persons, collapsed in the aftermath of the

Iraq War of 2003. Most of the community relocated to nearby Iran, Syria, and even

Jordan, still proclaiming the chief Mandean prophet to be

John the Baptist. The ministry of John the Baptist was powerful.

I mean, just wrap your head around that. 2 ,000 years later, this group in the Middle East is still revering him and holding him up as their main prophet.

Very powerful ministry, a God -ordained ministry. Yet, John pointed people away from himself.

He pointed people away from himself, away from himself and toward Jesus, towards the

Messiah. Three days, three groups, three testimonies. Day one, the first group and the first claim in verses 19 through 28.

Jesus, as Messiah, is far superior in every way to the forerunner ministry of John the

Baptist. John the Baptist quoted right there in Isaiah. Jesus, as Messiah, is far superior in every way to the forerunner ministry of John the

Baptist. And then day two, the second group and the second claim, verses 29 through 34.

On the next day, he saw Jesus coming to him and said, behold, the

Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. The interaction recorded on the second day are the statements

John made prior to and after he baptized Jesus. We see this account in the synoptic gospels.

So if you've never heard that term before, the term synoptic, you can think about it, just means the same, similar, the same.

And that applies to Matthew, Mark, and Luke, meaning that they relay very similar or the same accounts of Jesus's earthly ministry.

But John is not part of the synoptic gospels. John's gospel gives us more information and does not include the same material in some places.

Look at this account of the baptism from Matthew chapter three. Here's the account.

Then Jesus arrived from Galilee at the Jordan, coming to John to be baptized by him.

But John tried to prevent him saying, I have need to be baptized by you. And do you come to me?

But Jesus answered and said to him, permit it at this time for in this way, it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.

Then he permitted him. And after being baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water.

And behold, the heavens were opened and he saw the spirit of God descending like a dove and coming upon him.

And behold, there was a voice out of the heavens saying, this is my beloved son in whom

I am well pleased. For example, Mark and Luke give us a similar account, but not

John. Instead, John records the specific witness in terms of verbal communication from the

Baptist mouth upon seeing this event. He's no longer speaking to the

Jerusalem delegation, the Sanhedrin Aaron boys. Day two's group would be his own disciples and the gathered crowd who were present at the baptism of Jesus.

And immediately we see the claim of the second day. Jesus is the lamb of God.

This man before you is the lamb of God being a perfect spotless sacrifice without blemish.

Jesus takes away the sin of the world. And we can connect this statement even back to the prophet

Isaiah. Isaiah 53. He was oppressed. He was afflicted. Yet he did not open his mouth like a lamb that is led to slaughter and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers.

So he did not open his mouth. Luke will make the connection in the Acts of the

Apostles in chapter eight, quoting this exact passage from Isaiah referring to Jesus.

The apostle Peter will also make this connection in his first letter to the church in Rome. First Peter chapter one.

But with precious blood as of a lamb unblemished and spotless the blood of Christ.

Of course, we know the apostle John would later write that Jesus is the lamb of God.

We have this testimony, this eyewitness account in the Baptist, but the apostle himself later in the revelation of Jesus Christ.

He will say Jesus is the lamb of God. We see this in the culmination of human history that we await with great anticipation.

This is Revelation chapter five. And I saw between the throne with the four living creatures and the elders a lamb standing as if slain.

When he had taken the book, the four living creatures and the 24 elders fell down before the lamb, each one holding a harp and golden bowls of incense, which are prayers of the saints, saying with a loud voice, worthy is the lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.

This one, this Jesus, John the Baptist testified that he is the lamb of God.

And because Jesus is the perfect lamb of God, he carries away the sins of the world.

The apostle would later write this in his first epistle. You know that he appeared in order to take away sins.

And in him, there is no sin. First John chapter three. And we see in this narrative as the apostle continues in verse 30,

John the Baptist says, this is he of whom I had said. After me comes a man who has been ahead of me for he existed before me.

The Baptist now clarifies without doubt, he's referring to Jesus as the preexistent one.

And it takes us back really to the way that John started his gospel. Chapter one, the first two verses in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was

God. He was in the beginning with God. The apostle is now elaborating on the statement the

Baptist made that was quoted in verse 15. Same chapter, John bore witness about him and cried out saying, this was he of whom

I said, he who comes after me has been ahead of me for he existed before me.

So look at verse 30. It serves as the explanation of verse 15. John started with connecting preexistence in eternity past to the human man, the

God man, Jesus of Nazareth. And this aspect of the son or the word, as John will relay as a member of the

Trinity, speaks to Christ's preexistent eternality. And that's the other side of the coin in the day two claim.

Jesus is the son of God as the apostle records the Baptist testifying just after this statement here.

The attribute of God's preexistent eternality so that you can know the reliability of putting your trust in Jesus.

According to John's testimony of Jesus's earthly ministry. The Christ's attribute of preexistent eternality.

It demonstrates that as God, Jesus is the only possible source for sinners to have peace with God.

John says, I did not know him, but so that he might be manifested to Israel, I came baptizing with water.

This statement is helpful to show us the Baptist's humility and his humanity. Although he was the cousin of Jesus, he did not recognize him as the

Messiah. He did not recognize him as the Messiah until the start of Jesus's earthly ministry.

It's almost like there was this time set where Jesus would reveal himself as Messiah to all the people.

When John saw Jesus coming to be baptized, he recognized him not as the lamb of God and the son of God.

He saw Jesus as the Messiah. And these are his descriptions of that. But prior to this, he humbly admits he did not recognize him as such.

And John again relates the purpose of his ministry to make way for the king, to make way for the

Christ and prepare the hearts of Israel. Also, the Baptist's example of a purposeful witness gives us a pattern to follow today.

The apostle John gave the example of a purposeful witness in really verses six through eight of John the

Baptist as being one sent from God so that you can think of your life as a Christian as one who is sent by Jesus to bear witness, to bear witness to the message of salvation.

Verses six through eight, the witness of John the Baptist, there was a man having been sent from God whose name was

John. He came as a witness to bear witness about the light so that all might believe through him.

He was not the light, but he came to bear witness about the light. You know, in that passage, there's really two insightful takeaways from John the

Baptist's life. John's dispatch shows us that God's purposes will prevail because he has set us aside for a purpose as sent ones.

And John's directive shows us that as sent ones, we are to bear witness to Jesus and the message of salvation.

The Baptist ministry was to prepare the hearts of Israel. That's the witness of John the

Baptist, to prepare the hearts to receive the Christ. And the apostle continues in verse 32, and John bore witness saying,

I have beheld the spirit descending as a dove out of heaven. And he abided on him.

And now John testifies that what he saw during the baptism of Jesus.

These statements are unique to this gospel. While the other gospels record the event,

John gives us more detail in the Baptist reaction before and after the event.

It adds weight to the description of the event as now we hear the Baptist in his own words, testify to what he saw.

John says, I beheld to perceive something above and beyond what is merely seen with the eye.

Of course, we understand see, behold, he perceived. I perceive this.

This is with physical eyes to receive an impression of something transcendent.

He sees the dove and also becomes aware that it is the spirit descending is to move downward.

Think of coming, going, climbing down literally with indication of the place from which one comes or goes down from.

Heaven, the portion or portions of the universe generally distinguished from the planet

Earth. This is an atmosphere. This isn't space. This is the transcendent abode, heaven as the dwelling place or throne of God.

John the Baptist saw God, the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity descending down out of heaven.

This perception was enabled by God, enabled by God.

John says, I did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, the one upon whom you see the spirit descending and abiding on him, this is the one who baptizes with the

Holy Spirit. One commentator made this point. God had previously communicated to John so that this sign was to indicate the promised

Messiah. So when John witnessed this act, he was able to identify the

Messiah as Jesus. Two important observations here in verse 33.

First, John's humility. John's humility in pointing out that he did not know Jesus as the

Messiah, despite in all likelihood growing up with him or around him. As his earthly cousin, he didn't recognize

Jesus in the God man's humanity as being the divine preexistence son of God.

Second, John's clarification that he was not only sent by God as the forerunner, but that God had revealed to him to look for the sign of the

Holy Spirit to mark the Messiah. And another nuance of the claim that Jesus of Nazareth is the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world is also that Jesus is the son of God in verse 34.

But before clarifying the second claim from the second day about the lamb's sonship, he gives us an insert about the son's function, the baptism of the

Holy Spirit. It shows the apostle John's insight, but also gives extra credibility to the doctrine is coming from the

Baptist's own claim of direct revelation from the father in what the son would do.

And Luke is helpful here in what he recorded in the moments before Jesus ascended into heaven after his resurrection.

Acts chapter one records this from Luke and gathering them together, he commanded them not to leave

Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the father, which he said, you heard of from me for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the

Holy Spirit not many days from now. The father had revealed to John the Baptist how to identify the

Messiah by the marking by the Holy Spirit, but also the

Messiah's function that he would baptize with the Holy Spirit. Jesus himself explained this to his disciples.

The apostle John would have also been witness to Jesus's comments. We have this doctrine recorded in John as a precursor in John's gospel and recorded later in the acts of the apostles.

The apostle Paul will help us to understand this in his letters to the Ephesians and the Corinthians. Ephesians chapter one,

Paul says in him, you also after listening to the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, having also believed you were sealed in him with the

Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance unto the redemption of God's own possession to the praise of his glory.

And in Ephesians four, Paul says, there is one body and one spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling, one

Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and father of all who is over all and through all and in all.

Paul will elaborate further in first Corinthians in chapter 12, for by also one spirit, we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one spirit, the baptism of the

Holy Spirit. That moment that you believe you're not regenerated, you're a sinner condemned to God's wrath.

And in a moment, you're saved. The baptism of the Holy Spirit, where God regenerates you causes you to believe he baptizes you with the

Holy Spirit. I found this definition of the baptism of the spirit I thought was helpful. The baptism of the

Holy Spirit may be defined as that work whereby the Spirit of God places the believer into union with Christ and into union with other believers in the body of Christ at the moment of salvation.

The baptism of the Holy Spirit was predicted by John the Baptist and by Jesus before he ascended to heaven.

This promise was fulfilled after Jesus had ascended. For the first time, people were permanently indwelt by the

Holy Spirit and the church had begun. The baptism of the Holy Spirit does two things.

Number one, it joins us to the body of Christ. And number two, it actualizes our co -crucifixion with Christ.

Being in his body means we are risen with him to newness of life. We should then exercise our spiritual gifts to keep that body functioning properly as stated in the context of 1

Corinthians 12. Experiencing the one spirit baptism serves as the basis for keeping the unity of the church as in the context of Ephesians 4.

Being associated with Christ in his death, burial, and resurrection through spirit baptism establishes the basis for our separation from the power of indwelling sin and our walk in newness of life.

And the apostle concludes here in the day two narrative, the witness says, and I myself have seen and have borne witness that this is the

Son of God. Ultimately, both day one and day two claims point to the fact that Jesus is the

Messiah. Jesus is far superior than the forerunner of the Messiah as predicted by God the

Father through his prophets. Jesus as the Lamb of God is the

Son of God who takes away the sin of the world and baptizes sinners with the

Holy Spirit. Although it is true as new creations, all redeemed sinners are now the sons of God or the children of God, Jesus as the

Son of God has a unique oneness, an intimate connection to the

Father as the Son. The phrase which John so strongly and forcefully uses carries the profound weight of promoting the reality of the deity of the

God -man Jesus of Nazareth. John the Baptist makes it clear, I myself have perceived with my own eyes.

I myself have experienced this event and mentally or spiritually perceived.

I myself confirm or attest to this event on the basis of personal knowledge or belief to bear witness, to be a witness.

Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of God. That's who Jesus is.

When thinking about Jesus as the sacrificial Lamb of God, it made me think of a story

I had once heard. There was a farmer who when telling his young daughter the story of Abraham and Isaac, the father related how

God had finally told Abraham not to kill Isaac and instead had provided a sacrificial lamb.

In the account of Genesis, a ram had appeared in place of Isaac.

In the context of that passage, when Isaac asked Abraham where the burnt offering was,

Abraham told his son, quote, God himself would provide a sacrificial lamb.

And then right before Abraham lowered the knife, God called out for him to stop. And they looked up and saw that a ram had been trapped in the thicket of bushes.

A beautiful story of God's provision, of God's sacrifice. But also as the father was relaying, the farmer was relaying this story from Genesis, really of God providing a sacrificial lamb, he made his little girl uncomfortable.

The little girl looked up to her father with a sad expression and said, I don't like killing lambs.

I don't like killing lambs. And the father was speechless for a moment. And then he realized what traumatic and memorable events such as a sacrifice on the farm was, and even to his daughter, how serious the killing of a lamb was, the killing of a lamb for sacrifice was.

And thinking about that story from Genesis and his own faith, how destructive the reason for the sacrifice, sin.

He thought the killing of a pure white lamb seemed so horrendous to his daughter.

Himself as a believer, he pondered how immeasurably more was the crucifixion of the lamb of God.

You know, what an amazing Lord we have. What an amazing Lord we have. Jesus, as a perfect, unblemished lamb, voluntarily sacrificed his life and took upon himself the full and complete wrath of God for us.

Jesus took away our sin. By turning away from sin and returning to God and putting your faith in Jesus Christ, Jesus graciously takes away your sin and gives you the

Holy Spirit, the witness of John the Baptist. Three days, three groups, three testimonies.

Day two, the second group and the second claim, verses 29 through 34. Jesus is the lamb of God who takes away sin because he is the son of God who baptizes sinners with the

Holy Spirit. The true identity of Jesus is the Messiah as testified by the numerous eyewitness accounts of the gospels and the

New Testament record of his earthly ministry and teaching. Reaching sinners for Christ will never be accomplished by presenting a silly, whimsical version of Jesus that removes his power and true identity.

The identity of Jesus as the Messiah is so critical for us as believers. When we rightly understand him, we can rightly display him to those who don't know him.

When we rightly understand him, we have assurance in our own salvation. Charles Spurgeon is quoted as saying that he was so sure of his salvation that he could grab onto a corn stalk and swing out over the fires of hell, look into the face of the devil and sing, blessed assurance,

Jesus is mine. When the storms of life, the winds of trouble and the sea of discomfort and emotional agony seem to overwhelm, we have to say with the songwriter, our hope is built in nothing less than Jesus's blood and righteousness.

We dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus's name.

The identity of Jesus as the Messiah is so critical for us as believers.

When we rightly understand him, we have assurance in our own salvation. When we rightly understand him, we can rightly display him to those who don't know him.

In verses 19 through 42, the apostle describes the witness of John the

Baptist over a three -day period to three different groups so that you can see the first of many witnesses that prove that Jesus is the

Messiah. Three days, three groups, three testimonies. Day one, the first group in the first claim is that Jesus as Messiah is far superior in every way to the forerunner ministry of John the

Baptist. And day two, the second group in the second claim is that Jesus is the

Lamb of God who takes away sin because he is the Son of God who baptizes sinners with the