Scripture: John 1:19-23
Date: May 22, 2011
Speaker: Sean Higgins
It’s possible for someone who is fantastically well-informed to completely miss the point. Not only is it possible, it is sad, and it’s a good reminder for us.
I mentioned in my introduction message to our study of John’s gospel that most of us know the gospel story, we’re familiar with the truth about Jesus’ person and work, and we’ve read the Fourth Gospel many times before. But how tragic if we know about faith but don’t believe, if we rehearse the facts but don’t follow Christ, if we’re more concerned about keeping our religious ducks in a row than we are about having eternal life.
This is the exact position in which we find many of the most well-informed, biblical scholars and religious people of Jesus’ day. In their case, great understanding served to keep them from believing rather than to draw them to Jesus. They used knowledge of the written Word to protect their own authority and position rather than realizing their need to submit to the incarnate Word, Jesus Christ.
After verse eighteen of chapter one we leave the Prologue and enter the main body of the gospel of John. Depending on how one outlines John, the first major division may extend from 1:19-12:50, focusing on Jesus’ public ministry and seven signs that He is the Son of God. 1:19-2:11 presents the first week of Jesus’ ministry, finishing with Jesus’ first sign at the wedding in Cana (2:1-11). There are other proofs of Jesus’ identity, including the witness of John the Baptist (1:19-39).
The apostle John already introduced us to the Baptist twice in the Prologue, verses 6-8 and verse 15. His ministry had great significance as the last Old Testament prophet. Though we read about him in the New Testament, his ministry occurred before the NT was written, as a forerunner to Christ, and so he is a bridge between the Old and New.
The Baptist was certainly quite a character, well-known to first century Palestinians. He wore camel’s hair, ate locusts and wild honey (Matthew 3:4), and called Jewish religious leaders a brood of vipers (Matthew 3:7). Though his appearance was fanatical, his message was consistent: repent from sin and believe in the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
Near the beginning of his ministry, the ruling religious officials sent a delegation to investigate who he was. It’s interesting that the apostle John provides no details whatsoever that lead up to why the delegation was warranted.
That’s worth more reflection. Why not provide any details of John’s ministry? He obviously was doing something significant enough that warranted this delegation. Why mention nothing? Perhaps part of the reason was that John the Baptist’s ministry was familiar to most of John the apostle’s readers. Perhaps also, and I think the context supports this, John the apostle emphasizes the point that John the Baptist was a pointer. There is no confusion about who was who and, in particular, who was the Light. The apostle John doesn’t deviate too much into the baptizer John because the baptizing John didn’t deviate from pointing others away from himself to Christ.
This paragraph (1:19-23) provides us with John the Baptists witness and how the well-informed totally missed the point. At the heart of their concern was authority, what was John the Baptist’s identity, what were his credentials.
And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?”
Verse 24 makes it even more specific, Pharisees were involved in this investigation. The spiritual leaders from the seat of the nation task a sub-committee to find out who John thinks he is. When you care enough to send someone else, you’re likely more interested in shutting someone down rather than actually gathering information. The men sent were “priests and the Levites,” those responsible for leading and controlling the nation’s worship. They were ritual specialists and functioned with authority to put down anyone who didn’t follow the rules. Interestingly enough, John the Baptist was a Levite and the son of a priest (Luke 1:5).
Starting at the end of verse 19 through the rest of the paragraph, we read the report of four rounds of their questions and John the Baptist’s answers. Their questions were biblically informed, even Messianic in expectation, but totally blind. We could say they knew more before they asked any questions. John’s answers were clear and to the point.
The priests and Levites start with an easy sounding question. “Who are you?” But based on the answer, the question must have had an edge to it. John the apostle describes that the Baptist “confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ.” (verse 20)
We might wonder, “Well who said you were?” John comes out of the gate with insistence, adamantly pointing to someone other than himself. We already read that “he was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light” (1:8) and that he “bore witness about him,” the “one coming after” him (1:15). So his testimony is consistent when he said, “I am not, really, I am not, the Messiah.”
The terms Messiah (Hebrew) and Christ (Greek) both mean “anointed” (usually by God). In the NT and early Judaism, “Messiah” is a summary term that gathers up many strands of OT expectations about a coming “anointed one” who would lead and teach and save God’s people, especially the great King and Savior in the line of David whom the OT promised. Christ is not, therefore, a personal name, but a title. (see the ESVSB note on John 1:41)
The options are narrowed down at least by one.
The priests and the Levites get more specific. “And they asked him, ‘What then? Are you Elijah?‘”
They recognized that something significant was going on with John, and this question reveals that they were considering him, at least potentially, as an eschatological figure. The question also reveals that they knew their (OT) Scripture. Malichi revealed the LORD’s promise, “Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple” (Malichi 3:1). The messenger prophecy was even more specific in that, before the Messiah, Elijah would come.
Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes. (Malichi 4:5)
Elijah never died; he was taken to heaven in a whirlwind (2 Kings 2:11). The reason for sending Elijah, however, was probably not due to the fact that he never died, but for sake of his bold and confrontational approach. Elijah was one of the more dramatic prophets (think 1 Kings 18 and his confrontation of almost 1000 false prophets, calling fire from heaven to consume the sacrifice). The promise of Elijah is in the very last paragraph of the final book in the Old Testament. The people expected Elijah.
But when they asked John if he was Elijah, “he said, ‘I am not.‘”
An angel prophesied to Zechariah that John would go before the Christ “in the spirit and power of Elijah” (Luke 1:17). Also, Jesus Himself said that John was “Elijah who is to come” (Matthew 11:14). However, there is no evidence that John ever made the connection himself. He was unwilling to exalt himself to that position, or at least unwilling to take on himself the mantle full of misunderstandings attributed by the people to Elijah’s coming.
The possibilities are limited further.
The priests and Levites continue, “Are you the Prophet?” This question likewise continues the eschatological, Messianic theme. It comes from Deuteronomy. Moses promised:
The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen—just as you desired of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God or see this great fire any more, lest I die.’ And the Lord said to me, ‘They are right in what they have spoken. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. (Deuteronomy 18:15-18)
Maybe this explains who John is. But he “answered, ‘No.‘”
We can sense that the priests and Levites are getting irritated and exasperated.
So they said to him, “Who are you? We need to give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?” (verse 22)
It’s as if they said, “Seriously. Stop playing around. Our bosses are going to be mad if you don’t tell us what we want to know. Give us a straight answer.”
In the previous three rounds, the Baptist makes three denials; he answers who he is not. Now he makes an affirmative claim.
He said, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as the prophet Isaiah said.” (verse 23)
This affirmation is why our Scripture call to worship has come from Isaiah 40 the past two weeks. The Baptist identifies himself as the “voice.”
If the priests and Levites knew about the promised Christ, about Elijah, and about the prophet, they should have known Isaiah 40. It’s worth a few minutes for us to get to know as well.
Isaiah 40 begins a multiple-chapters-long section of prophetic comfort. Chapters 1-39 contained prophetic warnings about Israel’s coming captivity as a punishment for their sin, a captivity that would occur a couple centuries later in Babylon. The promises of future restoration (after the still future captivity) were for God’s people, to strengthen their hope in Yahweh, the LORD.
In verses 3-5, Isaiah uses the image of the refugees returning from captivity from the east into Jerusalem. The figures of cutting straight, flat, and smooth roads illustrated preparing the way for the king to come.
A voice cries:
“In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord;
make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
Every valley shall be lifted up,
and every mountain and hill be made low;
the uneven ground shall become level,
and the rough places a plain.
And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed,
and all flesh shall see it together,
for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
(Isaiah 40:3-5)
Here’s a crucial question: is Isaiah 40 prophesying about Jesus? Is John the Baptist applying it to Jesus? Isaiah is prophesying about Israel’s deliverance, first from Babylon and also as an illustration of their greater deliverance from sin.
In the original context, the Old Testament prophet is calling for a (metaphorical) improvement in the road system of the desert to the east, a leveling of hills and valleys and a straightening of the curves, to accommodate the return of the covenant people from exile. But even in Isaiah, the end of the exile begins to serve as a model, a literary ‘type’, of the final return to the Lord far greater than a return to geographical Jerusalem. (Carson)
John the Baptist is saying that Jesus is Yahweh, the Word made flesh is the covenant-keeping, faithful LORD of the OT Word. Second, John also is saying that there is another captivity of God’s people, another need for deliverance. They were in captivity to sin. It’s why the Baptist will speak about the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world the very next day (John 1:29).
The people are in a dry wilderness. One is coming who will save them, lead them, be their king. So what should the people do? Repent!
And it went right over the heads of the priest and the Levites. We’ll see next week that they just move on, ignoring the Baptist’s answer altogether.
Their questions put them in the right ball park, but their response shows that they had their backs to the field. They were asking about the end times and the Messiah, and John tells them that he knows. All their well-informed, Bible-based questions could not overcome their spiritual blindness. Like trying to admire flowers from the seat of a steamroller driving 35 miles per hour. At the heart of their concern was authority, what were John the Baptist’s credentials. Like paying more attention to where the cook went to school than the food on the table. They missed the pointer, and the point.
By the fact that we’re here this morning, the rapture did not occur. Predictions of a global earthquake were false, and many who turned their lives upside down must now regroup and piece together a broken set of beliefs.
Many of us were well-informed. We know the verses about how no one knows the day or time. We can ask good questions. But how tragic if we miss Christ. He is coming back, and those who are not ready will be His eternal enemies. The five virgins who didn’t prepare the oil didn’t get another shot.
Are we missing Christ? That would be tragic.