Episode Transcript
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Let's turn our attention to John,
Chapter One. Remain standing if you're able
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and will give our attention to God's
word in John One verses nineteen, beginning
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in Nineteen and through twenty eight.
Let's hear God's word, and this is
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the testimony of John. When the
Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to
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ask him, who are you,
he confessed and did not deny, but
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confessed I am not the Christ,
and they asked him what then, are
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you Elijah? He said, I
am not. Are you the Prophet?
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And he answered no. So they
said to him, who are you?
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We need to give an answer to
those who sent us. What do you
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say about yourself? He said,
I am the voice of one crying out
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in the wilderness. Make straight the
way of the Lord, as the Prophet
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Isaiah said. Now they had been
sent from the Pharisees. They asked him,
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then, why are you baptizing if
you are neither the Christ, nor
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Elijah nor the Prophet? John answered
them. I baptize with water, but
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among you stands one you do not
know, even he who comes after me,
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the strap of whose Sandal I am
not on. I am not worthy
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to untie these things. took place
in Bethany, across the Jordan, where
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John was baptizing. You may be
seated well the gospel of John, we
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have the account of the beginning of
the Ministry of Jesus and we are reminded
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right away that it Jesus is life
coincides very much with this man named John,
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John The baptist. It's one that
John The evangelist, the author of
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this Gospel, introduces to us to
ride away, a one that the other
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gospels also tell us about. John, the cousin of Jesus, born about
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six months before a Jesus was born, and and throughout their lives they very
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much track together. And yet though
John was born before, though Jesus came
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after him. John says here that
John The evangelist, the writer of this
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Gospel, says the about John The
baptist, that he was confessing that Jesus
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was one who was before him,
even though he came after him. And
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John now turns to return, turns. As we go through this chapter,
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he returns to this testimony of John
The baptist. Earlier, earlier in this
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book, we heard that John was
a witness. This is how John was
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introduced. Remember, verse six,
there was a man sent from God whose
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name was John, and he came
as a witness to bear witness about the
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light. Well, that witness is
what John The evangelist now returns to in
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talking about John The baptist. So
what is John the Baptist as witness?
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What is his testimony? Well,
that becomes very, very clear in this
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passage and through this testimony we learned
something very essential about Christ himself and about
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who we are as Christians. We
learn these things through the ways in which
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John Speaks and in what he says
his inner his reactions to these questions from
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his fellow Jews. But before we
get to John's testimony, I want to
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make sure that we pay attention to
the details of the scene. John,
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the writer of the this Gospel,
often will give these very particular details that
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we don't find another gospels. I
suppose this is true of all the Gospel
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Writers. Each of them have their
own way of of telling these of telling
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the history of Jesus and explaining that. Well, John gives us a particular
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details. He starts by saying in
Verse Nineteen, he sort of reintroduces us
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to this what he's going to talk
about. This is the testimony of John
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and then he says when the Jews
sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask
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him. So they come to ask
this simple question. Who Are you?
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But before we get to that,
in his response, do you know who
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priests and Levites are? What are
the priests and Levites these are? It's
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important to know this because they appear
very often throughout the gospels. The priests
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were Levites themselves. Levi describes one
of the tribes of Israel, one of
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the twelve tribes of Israel, descending
from Aaron, Moses's brother, and these
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priests are those who belong to that
tribe who met certain and qualifications. They
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were men, they were of a
certain age. There were also laws regarding
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deformities and other kinds of things.
There was a set of requirements that made
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one a priest. Well, there
were priests and then there were also levites.
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Sort of, we've got Levites who
are priests in a way and Levites
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who were not priests, and the
Levites is, it is often described.
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We're in charge of things like sort
of being temple police, in a way,
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gatekeepers. Levites were often in charge
of other tasks around the temple,
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making music, for one, and
they worked together side by side. The
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priests, however, were particularly in
charge of sacrifices and other temple rituals.
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They were also teachers. The way
this would work, as just a kind
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of side note, I think is
interesting. You might remember that the priests
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were divided all throughout the land.
They were. They didn't have a place
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of their own, but instead there
were levite cities placed throughout all Israel.
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So what would happen is each sort
of family would be given a rotation in
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the temple. So twice a year
you would travel up to Jerusalem and do
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your priestly duties and then head back
home. Of course, there were those
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who lived near and even in Jerusalem, and often they there was a there
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was a kind of social division that
would happen between those that were kind of
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in the capital city and those that
were sort of not, as often happens.
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The Levites were also divided up in
this way and would have various rotations.
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So when John says priests and Levites, what you want to think of
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is basically the religious establishment, another
words, those who were the religious leaders
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and who was in charge in terms
of temple worship and sacrifices and just the
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faith in a way, in the
in all of in those those parts of
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it, well, it was these
people. These are the people who were
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in charge, and so they have
a question that they want answered, and
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John is familiar with them. John
himself was the son of a priest.
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We know that from Luke and other
places, and he seems to have known
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this priesthood very well. In Matthew
Seven and Luke seven, John does not
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greet them as welcome, brothers,
I'm so glad you're out here in the
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desert. He says, you Brood
of Vipers, who sent you and and
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various other accusations. So why is
John Feel this way? Well, John,
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this particular Gospel, doesn't get it
that and doesn't give us the answer
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directly and and right away. Eventually
their intentions will be made clear and they
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will largely be responsible for putting a
Jesus to death. But here we are
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given this detail that they come from
Jerusalem. Why does John Mention this?
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These the the the religious, these
religious leaders, coming from Jerusalem to answer
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this question? Well, one thing
this does is it reminds us that this
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story doesn't begin in the capital city, as is all is the case with
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Jesus. Over and over and over
again, he starts where you wouldn't expect
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him. He starts out in the
Wilderness. is where his ministry starts.
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This is where John Is. It's
a good reminder, I think, that
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this is often where God's grace begins. It's outside of Eden, in the
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Wilderness, that God meets with them
and promises them the good news that they
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would live through a son of eve. It's in the Wilderness that Jacob meets
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with God. It's in the wilderness
that Abraham is called out to by God
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and and it's in the wilderness that
God establishes his people, Israel, as
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after he calls them out of Egypt. And this is true of our lives
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as well. God doesn't come to
us in our power and in our strength
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and in our glory. If we
are in power and strength and glory and
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he's coming to us, you can
bet that he's about to topple you.
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That's usually how it works, though. When God meets us in His grace,
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which is exactly what John has been
testifying to hear, he meets us
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in the Wilderness, in desolate places
and lonely places, in biting places and
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due to Ronomy. It says that
God carried Israel through the wilderness like a
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father carries a son. That's how
it describes the Lord's care for them.
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Is he led them by that pillar
of fire and cloud. And this is
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what God does for us here today
in our lives, in this age where
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we wander as pilgrims, where we
live and this wilderness of sin and in
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a world that is cursed. God
comes into the world and meets us.
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He's has met you and the Wilderness
of this age and of your particular lives.
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Through faith and repentance. He meets
us in the Wilderness and makes it
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a place of glory, of wonder, of amazement, of protection and safety.
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Why? Because he comes to us
there. So it's a significant thing
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that these priests and Levites are coming
from Jerusalem out to the Wilderness to figure
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out what John's doing and and what
is what is going on, what this
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Christ is that he's testifying to.
The second thing to note that significant about
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John's pointing out that they're coming from
Jerusalem is that this is kind of far
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away. It's a gigiographical detail that
helps give shape to the story and eventually
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it it will close the scene as
well. At the end of this passage,
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I read in Verse Twenty Eight.
We read these things took place in
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Bethany across the Jordan, where John
was baptizing, so it says. Starts
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out this this episode starts out by
saying that they came from Jerusalem and where
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were they going? Well, we
learn at the end that they came out
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to Bethany across the Jordan. Now, Bethany is an unknown city, but
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a lot of good proposals have been
made to suggest that it's perhaps not bethany
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a city, but Bashawn, this
region that is northeast of the Jordan,
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in the Sea of Galilee. I
won't go through all of those reasons,
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but they have to do with the
background philology, various historic like a historical
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preference that the Jews had for Baptizing
near the Sea of Galilee, better waters,
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pure waters, their number of other
things. But I'll just say this
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that this distance means that they traveled
quite far to get from Jerusalem. It's
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at least a hundred miles, depending
on the route you take. Walking eight
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hours a day, you're looking at
a four to five day journey. I'm
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guess I'll have to ask Harold about
that later. He knows about walking,
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but I'm guessing. I'm estimating if
they're walking about eight hours a day,
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about four to five days of walking. So this means that one John has
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been there a while. They've heard
this news, they know what's going on.
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Something big is happening out there in
the wilderness across the Jordan, and
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something so big that these men are
willing to travel a fairly long distanced to
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just go and ask this question.
Who Are you? So now we come
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to the question. Well, what's
the big deal? Why would the Pharisees,
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as we read later, send these
priests and leavites all the way out
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into the Wilderness to ask John this
question? Well, messianic expectations were very
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much in the air, with the
Romans ruling over on over the people there
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are after the exile. There was
hope. There were waiting for all of
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these promises that had been promised in
the prophets. Where is the Christ or
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where is Elijah, or where is
the prophet or and a number of other
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people that the Jews were expecting,
some of them that we see attested to
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in scripture and some not. There
was this hope and anticipation that was going
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on. There was a lot of
discussion about it, a lot of debate
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about it, disagreement about it,
and now something significant seems to be happening
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up there in the northeast and these
men are going to go investigate. They're
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going to find out. Now,
John Notes, that some of them came
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from the Pharisees, as we continue
our introduction of these various people who were
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the Pharisees. Well, the Pharisees
in distinction from another group called the Sadducees,
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were, we're both of all say
this, the both the Pharisees and
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the SADDUCEES. You want to think
of them as kind of like political religious
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movements that had differences and what they
believed about the scriptures and a number of
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other things. After something called the
maccabeean revolt, after this, this destruction
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happened in in Israel. A number
of things happened. Some people fled,
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there was this, maybe you've heard
of the Kumaran community, sort of escape
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out into the desert, trying to
just get out of a mess and wait
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for the Messiah out there. There
are other people that say, well,
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well, we need to pay more
attention to the law. We need to
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follow after God's law. We have
to be pious, we need to be
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careful about these things, and you
have various groups that pop up. The
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sadducees thought that only the first five
books of the Bible were canonical and had
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a number of beliefs based on that. The Pharisees took the rest of the
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scriptures as scripture, and we're very
they were known for being very diligent about
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applying those scriptures. So throughout the
Gospel you hear about the Pharisees. Believe
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this and believe that. Well,
it's because they spend a lot of time
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thinking about applications of the word,
but not just applications in general. They
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took those applications kind of as scripture
itself. So you had the authority of
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the word but also the authority of
the tradition of the elders. Unfortunately,
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we have churches like this today,
that that treat the Bible like this.
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There's sort of the authority of the
word, but it's put next to and
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right alongside the authority of the tradition
of the elders or the traditions of the
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church, doctrines and commandments that are
the set and next to God's word and
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made equal and even over it.
Anyway, I point all this out to
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point it out why John says there
are Pharisees, right. So why does
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John have this parenthetical comment that the
Pharisees sent them? Well, the Sadducees
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were no doubt curious about John as
well, but I think the reason John
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Points out that the Pharisees sent them
is because it makes sense of the questions
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they're asking. They're asking questions that
are not based on the first five books
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exactly, but are trusting that they
prophets that a prophet was to come from
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Deuteronomy and and Elijah from Malachi.
Also, the Pharisees, as we read
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in the Gospels, are very concerned
about washings, ritual purity and things like
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that. So here's this guy out
in the desert seeming to be a kind
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of Elijah prophetic figure who's baptizing a
lot of people. This is like right
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up the Pharisees Alley Right, and
they want to know what's going on.
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What's this Guy Doing? Why are
the crowds following him? The Pharisees were
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also very a kind of people's movement
to they, the Sadducees, sort of
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worked at the upper echelons of the
Jewish government and troup, you know,
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hobnobbed with those people. The Pharisees
were more in touch, you might say,
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with the with Alay people and had
their influence there. So again,
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all these crowds, these big this
sort of populist movement out in the desert,
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and this is something they need to
know about if they're going to stay
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in power, if they're going to
be influential, if they're going to keep
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things in control. They need to
find out what's going on. So they
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send the priests and the Levites out
to John to ask him this question that
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we're finally at. Who Are you? Who Are you? What are you
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doing? So what does John say? John says, well, he says
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I'm not the Christ. But actually
before that the scripture says he confessed and
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did not deny, but confessed I
am not the Christ. I was struck
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in reading this how sort of elaborate
that opening is right. It doesn't just
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say and John said or and John
replied, or even and John testified vigorously.
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It says he confessed and did not
deny but confessed. Right, it's
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just, you know, underline,
underline, underline. I am not the
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Christ. I am not the Christ. This is a an interesting way to
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ask answer a question. Who Are
you? When I first read this many
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years ago, I remember thinking that
John was being kind of snarky. You
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know, right, somebody ask you
a direct question about who you are and
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you like, I'm not this right, but that's not really what John is
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doing. Before I answer that question, what it's John Doing, I want
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to ask you why are you here
today? Why? Why are you here?
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Or, like the priests and the
Levites who came out to find who
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John is, they had a reason
for being there. They wanted to know
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what was going on. They wanted
to find out about this message. What
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about you? Why do you come
to hear this message about Christ, least
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from a servant who is not the
Christ? Why? It's very important,
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because what John is going to do
is he is not going to point to
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himself. What he does, what
he says, is I am not the
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Christ. He points away from himself, A to Christ himself. That's who
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they need to find. They came
out to find about John, but what
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they really needed was to find out
about Jesus and that's true for you and
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me as well, and I want
to encourage you, even tell you what
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to do and say. Do not
leave here satisfied if you have not found
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the Christ, if you have not
found Jesus. That's what it all is
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about, and that's why John Answers
the way he does. I am not
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the Christ. Well, this frustrates
them right he says, I am not
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the Christ, and so they respond
and I saying, well then, what
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are you? Are You Elijah?
He says, I am not. Now
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why did they ask about Elijah?
Well, Elijah was one of the prophets
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in the Old Testament, one who
didn't die very remarkably. Second Kings to
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eleven says that Elijah went up in
a whirlwind into heaven. Very unique.
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There's only one other person like this
in scripture. What they have in mind
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in particulars a prophecy from Malachi four
five, which predicts this. Behold,
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I will send you Elijah, the
Prophet, before the Great and Awesome Day
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of the Lord comes. Now this
prophecy and Malachi comes in the midst of
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a book where the danger of mocking
God and pious living is very strong.
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They are all these people sort of
halfheartedly, fasting, halfheartedly, offering their
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sacrifices, and God says, do
you think I do not know? When
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you bring your your bad animal,
your blemished animal, and offer it to
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me like it's the good one?
You think I don't know, when you
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act as though you're praising me,
but you're really not. Some what we
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could say today and apply it in
this way. You think you know.
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I don't know when you you put
on fancy clothes and you come to church
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and you act like you follow me, but really you don't. And Malachi
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says, I will not be mocked
and I will make distinctions between the righteous
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and the unrighteous. You say that
serving God is in vain. I will
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show you that is not vanity and
that those who serve the Lord, though
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God, will be lifted up and
those who do not serve him will be
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put down. And before that Great
Day of the Lord, I will send
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you Elijah, is what he's saying. Before that Great Day of judgment,
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this great apocalyptic day, I will
send you this prophet, before the Great
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and Awesome Day of the Lord comes. So right they are looking at their
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times and they are trying to read
the signs and they see this guy doing
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these things and they got Elijah.
He's Elijah. Well, it's interesting is
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the Bible says that he was.
Actually he was this Elijah. We read,
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for example, in Luke one hundred
and seventeen, this prophecy about John.
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He will go before Jesus in the
spirit and power of Elijah to turn
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the hearts of the fathers to the
children and the disobedient to the wisdom of
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the just, to make ready for
the Lord of people, prepared that John
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Is this Elijah figure is testified also, and if you're taking notes, matthew
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fourteen and Seventeen, twelve, also
mark thirteen. So if the Bible testifies
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that John Is this fulfillment of the
prophecy, and Malachi for five that he
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is Elijah, why does John Stand
there and say I am not all right?
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Why does John Say I am not? The reason is is because they
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were asking the sort of formally right
question, but he knew that. It's
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not that they were not asking it
with a correct understanding. This is just
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a little bit of wisdom we might
learn from the scriptures. When somebody asks
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you a question, you have to
add, not just take their words.
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If to know, like what's the
intent behind the question? What are they
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asking? Because if John Simply said
yes and affirmed all of their presuppositions,
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all of the things that were behind
that question, he would end up denying
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the thing that he was trying to
do, which was affirm that he was
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not the Christ. That was his
whole point, his whole ministry, and
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they were thinking of this Elijah figure
in some way as disconnected with Christ or
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or equal with him perhaps, but
he's not that Elijah. He's not that
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Elijah. He's not a reincarnation of
Elijah, the tissue bite, the Old
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Testament prophet come back to life or
anything like that. He is this particular
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Elijah, the one who points to
Christ in that great and Awesome Day of
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the Lord, a day of Judgment
and of reckoning that begins first with this
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amazing grace as the Lord Jesus,
as the son of God, becomes incarnate.
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Well, John doesn't want them to
think that he is somehow equal to
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Christ, or that he's Elijah and
reincarnated or come back to life, or
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that he's even just disconnected in any
way from Christ. Now he is intimately
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connected with him in the fulfillment of
this prophecy and so he says no,
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I'm not. So they respond by
asking another question. I say, are
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you the Prophet? What do they
mean by that? Well, they're referring
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to these prophecies that Moses makes a
Deuteronomy Eighteen, where Moses, this great
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and paradigmatic Prophet, says a Greater
Prophet will come one day, a prophet
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greater than Moses himself. And so
like these anticipation for Elijah, there is
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also for a very long time,
been anticipation about this prophet, this prophet
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who would come in. Again,
John Says No. Why? Well,
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because that Prophet that Moses testifies about
is ultimately Jesus himself. And what is
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John? Who is John? John
is not the Christ, right, that's
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who. John is not the Christ, and so it would be exactly the
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wrong answer and opposite answer to say
yes, I am the Prophet, I
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am Christ, who fulfills that office? So they're frustrated. Right, he's
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not giving them the answer they want. We had a simple question for you,
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John. Who Are you? I
am not the Christ. Are You
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Elijah? No. Are you the
Prophet? No. We did to give
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an answer to those who sent us. We're important people were came all the
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way from Jerusalem, where Levites were
priests were in charge. We were sent
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by the Pharisees. Who Are you? We need to give an answer to
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those who sent us. What do
you say about yourself? Now? John
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isn't trying to be coy now.
He does want to undermine their presuppositions,
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he does want to not affirm their
bad theology, but he does want to
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give them an answer, and he
does. In fact, he's given it
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through some various denials already, and
now he gives it in a positive way.
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He says I am the Voice of
one crying out in the wilderness.
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Make straight the way of the Lord, as the Isaiah, as as the
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Prophet Isaiah says. So John says
I am the fulfillment of a prophecy,
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and he points to one in particular, this one in Isaiah forty three.
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It's amazing that the what John Finally
testifies to is this kind of depersonalized identity.
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Is Sort of how I'm thinking about
it. They're asking, are you
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this sort of future person that we're
all expecting, and he says no,
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like well, how about this person? And we're all expecting no, well,
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who are you? And he says
a voice. He set jaws,
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sort of constantly downplaying himself. I
am just a voice of one crying out
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in the wilderness prepare the way of
the Lord. I'm to quote a little
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bit from some commentators about this particular
point in Isaiah, but I read this
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from this is Da Carson and greg
deal. After all the judgment and condemnation
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sounded in Isaiah one through twenty nine, the opening of Chapter Forty marks a
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major shift in orientation. It introduces
the theme of comfort and represents a Lightmotif
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for the remainder of the book.
So basically, what they're saying is that
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this prophecy that John is referring to
is right in the middle of the book
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of Isaiah, sort of this key
turning point where, after tons of prophecies
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about judgment and wrath of God,
there's kind of a switch that happens where
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God now starts promising him His grace. There's going to be this movement into
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the world and it begins with this
voice crying out into the Wilderness. In
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other words, is saying even the
structure of Isaiah in a way is testifying
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to what's happening here in the history
with John and this is what he testifies
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to, he says. He goes
on to say, I baptize with water,
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but among you stands one you do
not know, even he who comes
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after me, the strap of whose
Sandal I am not worthy to untie.
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He puts himself really low, like
a slave, like a servant. I'm
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not even worthy to do the most
low even like physically low to the ground,
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right eye. untying someone's Sandal,
a dirty affair, right, especially
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on dirty roads, bad sanitation.
I'm not even worthy to untie, to
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take off the shoes of this one
who comes after me. You think what
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00:31:30.920 --> 00:31:34.829
I'm doing is impressive, you think
these crowds are impressive, you think I'm
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some Great Guy Out in the Wilderness
doing this amazing thing that you've come to
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see. Come to figure out you're
asking the totally the wrong question. I'm
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just a voice. You want to
know who I am. I'm not the
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Christ. Why does John Answer in
this way? Because John's doing his job
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to give testimony to Christ, and
I don't think any one of us could
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have done any better than this.
It's striking that John Chooses to answer with
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this negative response, but it's indicative
of as I said at the very beginning
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the Christian way, as well as
John's message. Christianity, you have to
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understand, is very much about self
denial. It's about seeing Christ foremost,
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above all things and ourselves in relationship
to him. He is above all,
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he is everything, he is all
that you ever would want. He has
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all of your hopes, he is
the source of your very being. He
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is the most important thing and we
are always be understanding ourselves in relation to
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him. This is why idolatry is
a perpetual problem throughout the whole Bible and
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our lives. We are constantly choosing
to know and to serve ourselves are desires,
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the things of this world. That's
not what we were made for,
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though. We were made to know
and to serve and love our God.
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Our goal, then, always ought
to be as close to him as we
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could possibly be, to think of
ourselves and our identities constantly in relationship to
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him. Who Are you? I
am not the Christ. It's a way
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of affirming immediately both the most important
thing, the thing that you should always
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be asking about, the thing that
you should be seeking, the one,
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as well as affirming our relationship to
him. John Calvin puts this aspect about
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self denial in this way. He
says. Let this therefore be the first
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step that a man depart from himself
in order that he may apply the whole
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force of his ability in the service
of the Lord. Summarizing John Calvin's thoughts,
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current theologian, Michael Allen, he
writes this. In other words,
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the renunciation of self possession expressed here
in Calvin makes sense only amidst a transcendent
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claim of possession by the Triune God
of grace. Were saying is that this
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sort of emptying of oneself and giving
oneself only makes sense in the light of
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union with God, who is,
above all things, a continuing Allen's quoting
381
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of Calvin, he says, as
we sum up Calvin's description of the space
382
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for self denial, the first thing
to note must be its Christallogical location.
383
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How does John Deny Himself? Is
he just some kind of random guy who
384
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beats himself and, you know,
is down on himself and leads this kind
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of Downer life with no identity and
confusion? No, John's self denial is
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related to his affirmation of Christ.
Who Am I not the Christ? The
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first thing we denote must be it's
Christological location. In Union with Christ.
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As part of the promise of the
Gospel, we are led away from ourselves
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and led further into the life of
Christ. So this is what I say
390
00:35:58.210 --> 00:36:02.690
when I say John's testimony to the
Gospel, John's testimony to Christ. This
391
00:36:04.090 --> 00:36:07.159
this, that's this fat, this
way that he's saying. I am not
392
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the light, but he's the light. I'm not the Christ, but he
393
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is the Christ, and everything that
I do and say an act as in
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relation to him, not only testifies
to Jesus, but it stifies to the
395
00:36:22.469 --> 00:36:25.789
way of faith. It testifies to
how we ought to all be living our
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00:36:25.909 --> 00:36:30.710
lives as we think about ourselves,
as we think about who we are,
397
00:36:30.190 --> 00:36:37.219
and as we think about who Jesus
is and what he is promised. When
398
00:36:37.300 --> 00:36:44.820
Jesus came, he came not to
testify to anyone greater, but to be
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the Christ, to be the light, to be the life and the men.
400
00:36:50.690 --> 00:36:53.610
And that's why John will say later
in his book that all who believed
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on him and trusted him find life
in Him. Let your life be like
402
00:37:02.039 --> 00:37:08.360
John's because of Christ and who he
is. Christ came into this world,
403
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in the Wilderness and this humble place, and eventually gave himself on the cross
404
00:37:14.679 --> 00:37:20.150
in order to bring you closer to
him, not to establish you sort of
405
00:37:20.269 --> 00:37:23.550
outside of him, separate from him, somewhere and your, you know,
406
00:37:23.670 --> 00:37:31.699
little autonomous kingdom somewhere. Christ came
to draw you into himself, into his
407
00:37:32.019 --> 00:37:38.619
life, into his light. Learn
to see yourself in that way and,
408
00:37:38.780 --> 00:37:43.900
even better, learn to not even
look at yourself at all, but to
409
00:37:44.019 --> 00:37:47.369
look and to find everything in Jesus. Let's pray
