John 1:19-34--The Testimony of John the Baptist

John 1:19-34
English Standard Version

The Testimony of John the Baptist
19 And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” 20 He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ.” 21 And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” And he answered, “No.” 22 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?” 23 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.”

24 (Now they had been sent from the Pharisees.) 25 They asked him, “Then why are you baptizing, if you are neither the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?” 26 John answered them, “I baptize with water, but among you stands one you do not know, 27 even he who comes after me, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.” 28 These things took place in Bethany across the Jordan, where John was baptizing.

Behold, the Lamb of God
29 The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! 30 This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks before me, because he was before me.’ 31 I myself did not know him, but for this purpose I came baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to Israel.” 32 And John bore witness: “I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. 33 I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ 34 And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.”

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This is one of the few passages we hear about John the Baptist in the Gospel of John that I mentioned yesterday, and the primary role of John the Baptist is to point people to Jesus.  In this passage we see the priests thinking that perhaps John the Baptist is the Messiah (or maybe he thinks he is the Messiah).  The priests and Levites (those who were well educated in the Old Testament) go out to see why everyone is following John the Baptist.  Is he the real Messiah they have been waiting for (if they've been paying attention to the prophecies from Daniel, they should know it's time like we saw Anna and Simeon know in the book of Luke), and if perhaps he was a "false Christ," they wanted to know that too--especially if he was some kind of insurrectionist that was going to get them in trouble with the Romans.  If you don't know yet, "Christ" is the Greek word that is equivalent to the Hebrew word that we translate as "Messiah."  They are one in the same, so I might use them interchangeably.

John quickly, freely and readily admits, "I am not the Christ" They then ask some strange questions...they ask if he is Elijah (remember that Elijah never died but was taken up into heaven in the chariot of fire).  Elijah too was a "fire and brimstone" preacher like John the Baptist and there are several other similarities.  While John the Baptist was the one that came "in the spirit of Elijah," he was not Elijah--the priests and Levites had misinterpreted the Old Testament passage to think that Elijah himself would be the forerunner to the Christ, not that one would come that would be like Elijah (that is John the Baptist).  They then asked if John the Baptist was the Prophet foretold by Moses in the book of Deuteronomy (we know this is what they meant because they put the definite article "the" in front of it, but the translators have helped us by capitalizing the word Prophet).  The priests and Levites again did not properly understand that passage in Deuteronomy, even though that was their job, and they thought this Prophet would be separate from the Messiah, but Jesus was the Christ and the Prophet.  This passage about the Prophet was VERY important and is central to understanding a lot of the questions being raised in the book of John about Jesus' identity (especially the first four chapters).  Since it's a passage we probably aren't that familiar with today since we aren't awaiting this coming Prophet anymore, here it is for context:


Deuteronomy 18:15-22
English Standard Version

A New Prophet like Moses​
15 “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-- 16 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.’ 17 And the Lord said to me, ‘They are right in what they have spoken. 18 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. 19 And whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him. 20 But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.’ 21 And if you say in your heart, ‘How may we know the word that the Lord has not spoken?’-- 22 when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him.

John also said that he was not the Prophet.  They then demanded an answer of who and what he said he was.  We'll see similar, but different, confrontations between these same religious leaders and Jesus.  Where it seems they are truly interested in who John is, they soon become very uninterested in what John and Jesus have to say because their message threatens the position and power of the religious leaders.

John then identifies himself correctly as the one who comes in the spirit of Elijah that is the voice crying in the wilderness "make straight the way of the Lord."--word from the prophet Isaiah that the priests and Levites should recognize.

Then comes the question of the baptism of John, that the text tells us was truly a question of the Pharisees, but they were too "important" it seems to make the trip themselves to investigate, but we'll see they will make many appearances later to see both John and Jesus.  John did not really answer the question about where his authority came from, but instead took the opportunity to point to Christ and say that there was one greater than John who was coming whose sandals John wasn't worthy to untie that would baptize not with water, but with the Holy Spirit.  This should have caught their attention because of the Old Testament prophecies about God pouring out His sprit among the people in the last days.  (Ezekiel 39:29 and Joel 2:28-29).  We see these very verses referenced by Peter at Pentecost.

Now for one of my favorite names of Jesus!  It seems that the day before when John was being questioned that he knew the Christ was coming, but did not know His identity, but the Holy Spirit reveals Jesus' identity to John as Jesus passes by the very next day and John says prophetically, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world."  Jesus is going to be the fulfillment of all the Levitical sacrificial system, but He is specifically our penal substitutionary atonement and our Passover Lamb.  John then says that he himself had just come to understand this because of the testimony of the Holy Spirit that told John that whoever the Spirit descended on in the form of a dove and rested on would be the one who would baptize with the Holy Spirit (we see that John just referenced that the day before with the group sent by the Pharisees).  Then John puts the pieces together and realizes that Jesus is the Son of God (a favorite term of John to use to express the divinity of Jesus).  John understands that Jesus is no mere Prophet, nor is He even a Messiah that would be political like the people were looking for--no Jesus was God in the Flesh that would die in the place of His people to save them from their greatest enemies of sin, self, death, and the wrath of God.  John only knew this because he studied the Word of God, but he also had the Holy Spirit living inside of him to connect the dots and reveal the truth to him.  We too need the Holy Spirit to make sense of the prophecies and see what is right in front of us.  John and the religious leaders both had the same texts, both saw the same facts in front of them, but John had the Holy Spirit and the religious leaders apparently did not, and that made all the difference in the world of if they were in the light or in darkness.