A Conference with the Baptist

John 1:19-28

 

INTRO: Beginning at verse 19, we have the account of an investigating committee that came to Bethabara (vs 28) to have a conference with John the Baptist.  They wanted to know who he was, what he was doing, and by whose authority he was doing it.  They wanted to see his credentials.  “The three questions, Who? What? Why? Indicate the trend of questioning that day” (Powell 36).

 

I.        VSS 19-21, THE COMMITTEE’S INQUIRY

A.       Vs 19, The religious leaders in Jerusalem could not figure out who this man was.  Who was this baptizing in the wilderness?  So they sent representatives out to the wilderness to have a conference with John to find out who he was.

1. The question that these representatives are sent to ask is a simple one, “Who art thou?”  Who is this man who wears camel’s hair clothes with a leathern girdle and eats locusts and wild honey for lunch.

2. The fact that the religious leaders in Jerusalem sent representatives to the wilderness to ask John who he was is an indication of their spiritual ignorance.

a. John was the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy concerning our Lord’s forerunner: “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” (Isa 40:3).

b. Not only had the religious leaders failed to see John as the fulfillment of Isaiah 40:3, they also missed the prophecy in Malachi 3:1 concerning John. (Note Mark 1:1-4).

3. The Sanhedrin and others were compelled to see what was going on in the wilderness because of the stir John was making.

a. John was drawing a crowd.  This stirred the religionists (Mk 1:5).  Who is this?

b. John was preaching repentance.  This stirred the religionists. What is his message?

c. John was getting a response to his preaching.  This stirred the religionists.  What’s his method?

d. John was baptizing the converts.  This stirred the religionists causing them to send representatives to ask< “Who art thou?”

B.       Vs 20, John took a strong stand and said, “I am not the Christ.”

1. Yes, John drew large crowds (Mk 1:5), many of whom had become his disciples (Jn 1:35).  Why he could have said boasting: “I am the Messiah” and multitudes would have followed him.  John dismissed such Satanic thinking from his mind and answered: “I am not the Christ.”

2. “May God deliver us from the evil spirit of boasting, and keep us from ever claiming to be anything more than what we really are– sinners saved by grace” (Pink 52).  Our tendency is to exalt ourselves and not Christ.  Truly our prayer should be to God, “deliver us from such evil.”  Salvation by grace takes the pride and boast out of true believers.

C.      Vs 21, The committee sent from Jerusalem wanted to know if John was Elijah or the prophet that Moses had predicted in Deut 18:15, 18.

1. “Art thou Elijah?”  John’s answer is, “I am not.”

a. Although he came in the spirit and power of Elijah (Lk 1:17), he was not Elijah.

b. The scriptures seem to indicate that before the second coming of Chris to the earth, Elijah will return.  This could be during the tribulation (Mal 4:5, 6).

2. “Art thou that prophet?”  John’s answer again is, “No.”  According to Acts 3:20-22, “that prophet” referred to by the Pharisees was Jesus himself, the Messiah.  With John’s popularity, he could have claimed to be Elijah or Jesus, but  humbly he answers, “I am not.”

 

II.       VSS 22-24, JOHN’S ANSWER TO THE COMMITTEE

A.       Vs 22, If you are not Christ, not Elijah, nor that prophet, then “Who art thou?”  We need to give an answer to those that sent us here.

1. John could have boasted and said, “I am a priest’s son, my father’s name is Zechariah who served in the Temple.  My birth was by divine intervention.  Of those born among woman, I am the greatest.”  This could have been John’s answer, but it wasn’t.

2. John the Baptist did not come to exalt himself; he came to bear witness of and exalt Jesus (vss 7-8).

B.       Vs 23, John’s answer reveals clearly the humble heart of our Lord’s forerunner.  John is the one whom we know as being willing to decrease so that Christ might increase.  John is our example in humility.  “If we profess to have any real Christianity, let us strive to be of John the Baptists spirit” (Ryle 45).

1. “I am the voice.”  Jesus is the “Word.”  John is “the voice.”

a. The word exists before the voice.  There is the word, and then the voice speaks.  Christ existed before the creation (vss 1-3).  John bore witness of this.

b. The voice is heard not seen.  John did not want men to see him.  He wanted men to see the Lamb (vs 29).  When I was a boy, we were often told at the table, “Children are to be seen, not heard.”  God’s children are to be heard and not seen.  John did not promote himself; he exalted Christ!

c. The word endures when the voice is silenced.  John’s voice lies silent in death, but the Word of God lives on.

2. “The voice of one crying in the wilderness.”

a. The “wilderness” symbolized the spiritual desert, the barrenness, the unproductive condition of the Jews in spiritual matters.

b. Pink says: “Why. . . .did not John cry in the Temple?  Why?  Because Jehovah was not more there in the Temple.  Judaism was but a hollow shell: outward form there was, but no life within” (55).

3. “Make straight the way of the Lord.”

a. When the king is coming to visit his subjects, the road must be cleared; the way was made ready.

b. John’s message of repentance was a declaration to make straight the way of the Lord into the heart.

C.      Vs 24, The investigators had been sent by the Pharisees.

1. The Pharisees were very strict.  This is why the investigation was so thorough.

2. The Pharisees had high regard for the prophets, thus John refers to Isaiah 40:3.

 

III       VSS 25-26, COMMITTEE’S QUESTION ABOUT BAPTISM

A.       Vs 25, John’s authority to baptize is challenged by the committee.  Since he had not gotten authority from Jerusalem, why was he baptizing?  John’s authority was from the Lord (vss 6-8).

B.       Vs 26, John does not directly answer the question asked in verse 25.  He states that he immerses in water, but there is one standing among you who you do not know.

1. John baptized those who brought forth fruit showing that they had repented.

2. The Baptist could see no need in discussing baptism with men who were lost and not proper candidates. What they needed was salvation.

3. “There is one standing among you, who ye know not.”

a. The promised Messiah was in their midst and they knew Him not.

b. The King of kings was near and they did not see Him, acknowledge Him, or believe on Him.  Ryle says: “the vast majority of them never would know Him!” (46).

4. Jesus is in the midst of His churches, yet there are those who are spiritually blind.  They do not see Him, know Him, or believe on Him.

a. The God of salvation is nigh, yet many go on in unbelief (Rom 10:6-8).

b. “Mercy, grace, peace, heaven, eternal life are so nigh that they might touch them; and yet they sleep” (Ryle 47).

C.      Vs 27, The Lord Jesus holds such an exalted position that John says that he is not worthy to stoop down and untie His shoes.  John was a great man, spoken of in the Old Testament, born as a result of God’s intervention, filled with the Holy Spirit from his mother’s womb.  Yet, he could not compare to the divine one, to Jesus the Messiah.  What have we to boast of?  Nothing!  Then let us boast of Christ and salvation by the blood.

D.      Vs 28, The conference recorded in John 1:19-28 took place at Bethabara which means, “house of passage.”

1. “Beyond Jordan,” this pictures death.  “I won’t have to cross Jordan alone,” the song says meaning I do not have to face death alone.

2. The spiritual meaning here is that those who believe in Christ have passed from death unto life.  Bethabara was truly a “house of passage” for all who believed (Jn 5:24).