John the Baptist Testifies about Jesus (John 1:19-34)

Daniel L. Arter

John • Sermon • Submitted 3 years ago

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John's testimony about Jesus being the Christ and his recognition of not being the Christ himself.

Notes

Transcript

Introduction

This morning, we’re continuing in the Gospel according to John and after three weeks of study, we’ve finally made it out of the book’s prologue and we’re now actually in the book—which means I have to explain a little bit about the style of writing that we’ve moved into. So, with the Prologue (1-18), John was essentially writing in a manner so that he could explain all the various things that he was going to write about. So, hopefully you noticed, as we worked our way through the prologue, we hit up a ton of topics that had a huge range—we started with creation, the identity of Jesus Christ as God, we did briefly talk about John the Baptist in the introduction (which we’ll expound on this morning); and we spoke about becoming children of God through believing in Jesus Christ. Last week, we spoke about the great desire and the great lengths that God goes to be with his people, to the point that God tabernacles with us or pitches his tent with us; and we ended up with this idea that even in the giving of the Law in the Old Testament, God was and is gracious to all of us—we are all completely undeserving of what he has done for us and yet, he has given us the ability to have peace through his Son simply because he loves us.

Because we were hitting up a bunch of different topics and it was almost like going to a buffet where we could get a little bit of everything, it might have felt like there was a ton of information just hitting you and in some sense, that was John’s point. To give you a little bit of an overview of everything he was writing.

Now, it’ll be a little bit different and so you can expect the messages to change just slightly in accordance to the text. So, we’ll still be going verse-by-verse, thought-by thought through the text, but you’ll notice that this section is written differently than the prologue. Whereas the prologue is written as an introduction to the book, the actual book is written in a genre that we call historical narrative. What that means is that John is recounting historical accounts of what happened in a story-telling type of manner. In other words, John is utilizing stories to help us walk through the history in a more personal manner—that doesn’t mean that this is less authoritative because it’s a story or that it’s any less true than say Paul’s writings, which are very didactic manner meant to teach. These historical narratives are still 100% authoritative and 100% true, we just have to understand that this is a little different than say Galatians or Romans or even the Psalms.

Because these are narratives, we’ll sometimes have much larger passages to go through. So in the Prologue, we were going through smaller chunks of Scripture; now, we’ll be looking at larger chunks now and the main reason why is that if we break these passages up into smaller chunks, we run the risk of not actually understanding the point of the passage—and the whole point of reading, teaching, and preaching the Bible is to understand what the original author intended to say to the original audience, so we need to study the whole thought to understand the original context, the original message, and then and only then can we faithfully apply what Scripture says in our lives today.

So, let’s take a minute to read the whole passage, we’ll pray, I’ll break down the structure, and we’ll start working verse-by-verse through the passage.

John 1:19–34 ESV

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. 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.”

Prayer for Illumination

Now as we study this passage, we’re going to take it in three parts: (1) The Testimony of John the Baptist (1:19-28), (2) John’s proclamation of Jesus, the Lamb of God (29-34), and then (3) we’re actually going to circle back to 1:25-26, 28, 31-34 to do a quick topical study on baptism—what it means, its purpose, and why we still do baptisms today. All of this will help us to understand who John the Baptist was, his testimony about Jesus Christ, who Jesus is, and the purpose of baptism in the church today.

The Testimony of John the Baptist (John 1:19-28)

John 1:19–28 ESV

John jumps straight in from the prologue with this statement, 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?’”

“And this is the testimony of John,” What is a testimony?

In church contexts, we often use this term and honestly, a lot of times, I don’t think we actually know what it means. So, let’s take some time to understand the word first.

I think it would be helpful to actually know what it means. Testimony is a legal term and we’ve actually already studied this word before, but it was translated differently in English.

The word here is μαρτυρία, we studied the same word in Vs. 7, when we were talking about John being a witness of the light.

When we speak of someone testifying, we’re speaking about someone bearing witness about something

And like I said, oftentimes, its seen in a legal sense—as in the witness saw something and is now telling the court what he saw

But in a Christian setting, to give a testimony

Is to explain what you saw in a different way. It is to testify or to bear witness to what God has done for you

Particularly in the sense of conversion—how did God lead you to know him? Which means that a true Christian testimony, you should be able to articulate how Jesus led you to the Gospel and the events that occured leading up to your conversion

But also, a Christian testimony would also include events in your life in which it is clearly evident that God was working and thus your testimony could include how God comforted you in times of difficulty, how God taught your, how God worked in your life

But let me make one clarification—oftentimes we hear testimonies that are focused on the wrong things:

Oftentimes, the testimonies we hear are focused on the individual themselves—what the individual did, what the individual thought, or how the individual felt; but in reality, when we see the terms testimony, testify, or bear witness utilized in a Christian sense in the Bible, it is usually about God.

In reality, a true Christian testimony isn’t about me and what I’ve done, but it is all about God and what God has done.

Keep that in mind as we continue in Vs. 19, “this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, ‘Who are you?’”

So, by the time this is written about, John the Baptist had already started his ministry—Vs 28 states that “these things took place in Bethany across the Jordan, where John was baptizing.” And through his preaching and teaching he had already start capturing the attention of the people even the people in Jerusalem, which was about 20 miles away from Bethany (which remember, this is the 1st century, which means that he’s capturing the attention of people who live 20 miles from where he’s baptizing; and the people who were sent to him by the priests and Levites from Jerusalem would have walked 20 miles to question him).

Which means that the people in Jerusalem who were leading the Jewish people (the Pharisees and Sadducees that made up the Sanhedrin (the ruling party of Judaism)) had heard of this man, preaching in the wilderness who was baptizing people and they wanted to know who he was.

“The Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, ‘Who are you?’” And John could have said just about anything here. The only thing that the priests and Levites knew about John was that he was baptizing people and that he was preaching so what he ends up saying is actually worthwhile to study because it teaches us about him as well as the God that he’s representing.

The Bible says that “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?”

The first thing he says is “I am not the Christ.”

And you might be thinking, “well of course not, why would anyone think that?” But let’s think about the historical context a bit. During the first century the Jewish people had in their mind that some sort of Messiah would be coming soon—in fact, there were several others who had claimed to be the Messiah, but turned out to be false teachers and false prophets. Now what they thought about the Messiah differed between different groups of Jews—some speculated that the coming Messiah would be the Davidic King, others thought the Messiah would be primarily priestly, maybe a combination of the both. The people were expecting something, but they weren’t entirely sure what they were supposed to be looking for. And many of them expected the Messiah to bring forth the end-times.

But John flat out says that “[he] is not the Christ” or the anointed one. So, they kept pressing him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” “Are you the Prophet?” And both of these questions, actually show us the mindset that many of the Jewish people believed that the Messiah would come to bring about the end. I know that from Malachi 4:5, which prophesies about the return of Elijah prior to the great and awesome Day of the Lord and then the idea of him being the Prophet stems from Deuteronomy 18:15-18, which is actually a prophecy about the Christ coming from the Israelites in order to speak on behalf of Yahweh.

And yet, in all three questions, the answer is the same: John says “I am not the Christ; I am not Elijah; and I am not the Prophet”

Now of course, they can’t settle for those answers, because they were sent to Bethany with the purpose of determining who John the Baptist is. So, they keep pressing him, “Who are you? We need to give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?”

And John responds by connecting himself to a prophecy in Isaiah 40, which prophesies of the coming Messiah and tells us of the forerunner to the Messiah. 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.”

John identifies himself with a prophecy in Isaiah 40, which is important for us to know because the prophecy in Isaiah 40 is a prophecy about the coming Messiah.

Isaiah 40:1-5 says this, “1 Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. 2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins. 3 A voice cries: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. 4 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. 5 And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”

And since John is identifying himself as the voice in the wilderness crying out to “prepare the way of the Lord,” it alerts us to the fact that John recognizes this as the time when the Messiah would come—he recognized that the prophecy in the OT would be fulfilled by the Messiah.

Now John has answered them straightforwardly about who he is and the message that he’s proclaiming, but they still have one more question, If you aren’t the Christ, if you aren’t Elijah, or the Prophet, 25, “Then why are you baptizing?”

And John doesn’t exactly give an answer 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.” (The idea of water baptism is important and he’ll come back to that in the next section)

What I want to focus on is his statement “among you stands one you do not know, even he who comes after me, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.

I want to focus on this, because the first phrase introduces a theme that you’ll see over and over as we work through John, “Among you stands one you do not know.” This is the theme of unbelief.

And this theme runs concurrently with the theme of belief throughout the entire book. (1) John makes a stark contrast throughout the book between those who do believe and those who don’t believe. (2) It’s seen in this verse, but then it’s seen in the contrasting of people like Nicodemus and the Samaritan women coming to know Jesus Christ and those around them that refuse to believe, particularly those of religious authority.

It is evident in the way that John says this, “I’m baptizing with water, but among you stands one who you do not know.” This tells us two things (1) that he recognized that the Messiah was somewhere on earth at that time and (2) it tells us that not everyone who saw Jesus personally and physically recognized him as the Messiah.

Despite the fact that it was clear in terms of fulfilled prophecy (like the prophecy that John fulfilled as the forerunner to the Messiah) as well as the signs that John later writes about throughout the book.

John the Baptist makes the statement that, “among you stands one you do not know, [but] he who comes after me, I’m not even worthy to untie his shoes.

John the Baptist recognized that he wasn’t the Messiah and yet he also recognized that he had a purpose to fulfill in that he was the forerunner of the coming Messiah. And this point is expounded on in the next set of verses. Starting in Vs. 29:

John’s proclamation of Jesus, the Lamb of God (John 1:29-34)

John 1:29–34 ESV

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.”

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.’”

The very next day after being questions by these people that were sent to him by the Jewish leadership, he sees Jesus coming toward him. Now we know from Matthew 3:13-17 that Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan [river] specifically to be baptized by John.

And in Matthew 3, we learn that John actually tries to prevent Jesus from being baptized, Matthew 3:14, “John would have prevented him, saying, ‘I need to be baptized by you,’ but Jesus answered him, ‘Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.”

Which just shows us that John truly recognized his role and the role of the Messiah. In John 29, John the Baptist states that Jesus is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!

The imagery of the Lamb would be familiar to any Jewish person that took his faith seriously and that heard him—the idea of the Lamb was first utilized in Exodus 12 during the Passover, which then became a feast to celebrate Yahweh bringing the Israelites out of Egypt. The Passover Lamb was an unblemished male lamb meant for sacrifice. And thus, John the Baptist equates Jesus as the sacrifice of God who takes away the sin of the world!

Just as a brief side-note—it is so important to understand something that John says here, “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” It is Jesus who takes away our sin—we cannot work to get rid of our sin, we cannot wish our sins away, only when we come to Jesus Christ can all our sins be taken away.

In Vs. 30, He again, repeats the phrase, “After me comes a man who ranks before me, because he was before me,” but then he adds this statement, “I myself did not know him, but for this purpose I came baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to Israel.”

Now we do have to take a moment, because John is baptizing people, but the book doesn’t exactly explain why. We have to look at Matthew 3 to determine the purpose of baptism, John the Baptist in Matthew 3:11 says, “I baptize you with water for repentance.”

Which sounds an awful lot like he’s stating that baptism is a requirement for repentance, but let me assure you that he isn’t saying that. Rather what he’s saying and how the New Living Translation states it is, “I baptize with water those who repent of their sins and turn to God.”

Baptism does not result in salvation, but rather people are baptized because they have repented from their sins and turned to God—or in other words, John baptized them because they had already repented and believed in Jesus Christ.

John is baptizing people in accordance to their claim of repentance and belief and he makes this statement that he was baptizing so that he could reveal the Messiah—and if you’re like me, you’re wondering how baptizing the Messiah would reveal the Messiah or better yet, how did John know that baptizing people would reveal the Messiah and those questions are then answered in Vs. 32-34

32 “And John bore witness: ‘I saw the [Holy] 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.’”

John knew that the Messiah would be revealed to him through baptism because Vs. 33, says “I myself did not know him, but he who set 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.’

Now, you might ask, how did John not know Jesus? Weren’t they cousins? And that is an absolutely valid question, but remember one of the key themes throughout John is the theme of belief and unbelief. When John says, “I myself did not know him” he isn’t talking about a familiar knowing of one another; but rather the knowledge of Jesus being the Messiah.

What John is saying in Vs. 33, is that when he baptized Jesus, he didn’t recognize Jesus as the Messiah until this specific event happened

Vs. 32, “And John bore witness: ‘I saw the [Holy] Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him”

It was this event, in which the Holy Spirit coming down and remaining on Jesus that proved to John that Jesus was the Messiah because he was told by God that, “He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain is the one that will baptize with the Holy Spirit.

What does it mean that the Spirit descended on Jesus and remained on him? And let me start by saying, that the Holy Spirit was not a literal dove descending on Jesus and landing on him—”like a dove” is a simile, which means it isn’t literal (the Holy Spirit was and is not a dove that physically descended on Jesus). What it refers to is the manner of how the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus—somehow whatever the Holy Spirit did, reminded John of a dove coming to rest on Jesus.

The purpose behind the Spirit descending on Jesus and remaining on him was to signify that Jesus is the Messiah, but there are some implications that occur because of the Spirit descending on Jesus. It also fulfilled a prophecy from Isaiah 42:1, “The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him—the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD.”

In addition, I know sometimes we can forget because we sometimes take it for granted that believers are indwelled by the Holy Spirit, but let me remind you that prior to Pentecost the Holy Spirit didn’t indwell all believers. The Holy Spirit would descend on people and work with and through that person, but would then leave and descend on someone else—for instance, king Saul initially has the Holy Spirit on him when he’s following the commands of Yahweh, but when Yahweh determines to make David the king of Israel, Saul rejects that plan and we’re told in 1 Samuel 16:14, “the spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and an evil spirit tormented [Saul]” while the Holy Spirit moved to work in and through David.

So with the Holy Spirit then remaining with Jesus, it signifies a new age. No longer is the Holy Spirit temporarily working through individuals seemingly at random, but at this point in time, the Holy Spirit and Jesus are working together.

This union between the Spirit and Jesus, then adds meaning when John says “He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain [will baptize] with the Holy Spirit.”

Because Jesus experiences the Spirit without limit (John 3:34), Jesus can then baptize others with the Spirit; which occurs for the first time at Pentecost. Baptism with the Spirit is the initial indwelling of the Spirit that occured first at Pentecost, but subsequently to every believer at the moment of salvation.

If you have repented of your sins, called on the name Jesus as Lord, and believed in your heart that God raised him from the dead, the Holy Spirit indwells you—which has a significant amount of consequences (that we don’t have time to get into, but here are a few examples): (1) being indwelled by the Spirit is evidence that you truly believe, (2) the Spirit comforts you, teaches you, and trains you in righteousness, (3) Ephesians tells us that the Holy Spirit is who seals us until the day of redemption when we can collect the promise of our salvation.

John bore witness that the Holy Spirit descended and remained on Jesus Christ, and Vs. 34, “And I [John] have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.”—What John is driving at through this whole section is that (1) he was not the Messiah, Elijah, or the Prophet, but rather the forerunner of the Messiah, (2) he was baptizing people who had repented partially to show their repentance, but also because God had told him that the Holy Spirit would descend and remain on someone that he baptized and (3) when this event actually did happen with John baptizing Jesus, John had no qualms with openly declaring that Jesus is truly the Son of God that will baptize believers in the Holy Spirit.

Now, before we dig into application this morning, I do want to take a few minutes to look at baptism in a topical manner. As in, I know that many of you who have been involved with churches or have a basic knowledge of Christianity have heard of baptism; but I want to take some time to explain what it is, the purpose behind it, and why we continue to do it today.

The Purpose of Baptism (John 1:25-26, 28, 31-34)

John 1:25–26 ESV

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,

John 1:28 ESV

28 These things took place in Bethany across the Jordan, where John was baptizing.

John 1:31–34 ESV

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.”

What is Baptism?

The word baptize is transliterated from Greek—in other words, it is a word that wasn’t translated, it comes directly from the Greek word βαπτιζω. And it actually has a very specific meaning. Βαπτιζω literally means “to dip” or “to immerse.” As in the person being baptized is to be immersed in water.

And Baptist churches, of which we are, practice what we call believer’s baptism by immersion as an ordinance of the church. This simply means that we think that only believer’s should be baptized and this is based on the fact that everyone who is baptized in Scripture (1) hears the Word of God, (2) repents from their sins, (3) believes in Jesus Christ, and then (4) is baptized.

What is the purpose of baptism?

So, in John 1, John the Baptist was baptizing people who had repented to (1) show that they had truly repented and (2) because he was looking for the Messiah.

Today, we still baptize not because we’re still looking for the Messiah, but because it is a symbolic act of obedience that shows our belief in Jesus Christ. In other words, the purpose of baptism is to show obedience towards Jesus Christ in a symbolic act that unites you symbolically to the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ in that it symbolizes your death to your former life and your rising in newness of life in Jesus Christ.

I specifically utilized the word ordinance when talking about baptism in contradistinction to what are sometimes referred to as sacraments by other churches—the reason why I utilized ordinance rather than sacrament is that sacrament implies doing something in order to earn merit or salvation. And ordinance is something that is done because we’ve been commanded to do it. We don’t get baptized to get salvation, we get baptized because we’ve already received salvation.

Now, you might wonder why do we continue to baptize people? And that answer is found in Matthew 28:18-20. Right after the resurrection of Jesus and right before Jesus ascends into heaven to sit at the right hand of God, he gathers his disciples to a mountain in Galilee to give essentially his last words. And in his last words, he gives us what has been called his great commission or his final command, which says this, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

In other words, we continue to baptize people who have repented from their sins, called on the name of Jesus Christ, and believed in his resurrection because Jesus told us to keep baptizing people.

And people who are truly disciples of Jesus Christ should be baptized not only because of their belief in Jesus Christ, but also because it symbolically aligns them with the resurrection, it’s a public declaration that you believe, and baptism because it is commanded by Jesus, shows a step in your obedience to Jesus Christ.

Now, before I run out of time, let’s take a look at some application.

Application

The Testimony of John the Baptist (19-28)—John the Baptist makes the distinct statement that despite baptizing people and preaching, he himself was not the Messiah, or Elijah, or the Prophet. Rather that he baptized people with water as a symbol of them already believing and repenting and he, himself recognized that the true Messiah was coming soon, one who they don’t know and whose sandal he is unworthy to untie.

Do you know Jesus Christ? And just like John the Baptist, I’m not talking about this in a knowledge-oriented way. In other words, while you should know about Jesus Christ, both John and I are asking if you actually know Jesus. Until you know Jesus, the Bible says that you have no hope and no prospect for the future because you have no ability to pull yourself out of the sin that you find yourself in; only Jesus can pull you out of that sin. If you don’t believe this morning: I’m calling you to consider Christ, repent of your sins, call on his name, and believe in your heart. If you do that this morning, Jesus will save you and you will have hope, you will have a prospect for the future, and you will no longer be enslaved to the sin that separates you from God.

If you do know Jesus Christ, this passage calls you to remember your position before God.

John very clearly confesses and does not deny, that “[he is] not the Christ.” What that means is that he has a clear idea of who he is and what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ. Are you clear in who you are?

If you’re a believer in Jesus Christ, you are a new creation—old things are passed away, all things are made new. Do you live like this? If you’re a believer in Jesus Christ, your life, your ministry, your job, your being are no longer about you, they’re about Jesus Christ. Do you live like that?

Or are you still living in the former manner of living that Jesus saved you out of? If you are, I’m calling you to repent from that former manner of living, turn back to Jesus Christ, and follow him.

John’s Proclamation of Jesus, the Lamb of God (29-34)—John makes a profound statement concerning Jesus and Jesus’ purpose in coming to earth. John says, “Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world.” And he explains that the whole reason he baptized people was for the purpose of revealing who the Messiah was and this revealing takes place when Jesus is baptized and the Holy Spirit descended and remained on Jesus. That’s how John knew that Jesus is the Son of God. Now, how can we apply this to ourselves today?

Remember that Jesus is the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world. That statement applies in two ways:

First, remember that you cannot get rid of your own sins. You cannot work harder, wish more, or do more to remove the sins in your lives. You need to depend on Jesus as you continuously follow him to remove those sins for you. That doesn’t mean that you have an excuse, “I should keep sinning because I can’t remove sins on my own,” but rather that you need to turn to Jesus to get help in removing those sins in your life.

Secondly, remember that Jesus being the Lamb of God is a symbolic statement (that becomes a very real, literal statement during the crucifixion). Jesus is the sacrifice that is necessary to remove sins from us.

I’m calling you to remember this truth, because sometimes we forget that God had planned salvation from before the foundation of the earth. Sometimes we think that the age that we live in is almost a parenthesis in the history of mankind and the theology of God, but in reality God planned to utilize Jesus as the Lamb from the beginning.

Which shows God’s sovereignty in orchestrating all of history to provide a Lamb, sacrifice the Lamb, and resurrecting that Lamb. In other words, God is very much in control of all things—find rest and comfort in knowing this truth. You can rest assured that God is working all things in accordance to his plan.

Third, are you actively proclaiming the deity of Jesus Christ?

Do people know that you believe in Jesus Christ? Or is it something that you never bring up, that you don’t really care to tell other people, or that you don’t think is important enough to talk about?

Because if you truly believe that Jesus is the Son of God, you would be like John who openly proclaimed that Jesus is God—that’s not to say that you’re going to be standing in the river baptizing people who repent, but that is to say that you and your life ought to be more than willing to let people know that Jesus truly is the Son of God.

If you claim to be a Christian and yet you don’t take seriously Matthew 28 and Jesus’ Great Commission, my question for you is “what do you believe then?” Because Jesus whom you claim to believe in, very seriously told all of his disciples (of whom your are one) to go and make more disciples. And you cannot make disciples without first proclaiming that Jesus is the Son of God.

If you find yourself thinking that you don’t try to make disciples, let me encourage you to repent, turn to Jesus, and ask for opportunities to make more disciples of Jesus Christ.

Put another way, John the Baptist showed in his testimony that Jesus Christ is truly the Son of God and he lived in accordance to that truth—preaching repentance from sins and proclaiming the Son of God. In your testimony of life, are you proclaiming that Jesus is the Son of God? You don’t have to be standing in the river baptizing people to proclaim the truth of God’s word. You just need to live in a manner that is suitable for your calling as children of God.

The Purpose of Baptism—we spent the last few moments of the message talking about baptism, what it is, what its purpose is, and why we keep doing it today. I explained that baptism is a symbolic ordinance given by Jesus command in the great commission that unites us to the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus; and it signifies that we truly believe in Jesus Christ and that we truly want to follow Jesus Christ. Baptism is not required to be saved, but a believer who truly believes in Jesus Christ should be baptized in accordance to what Jesus has commanded.

If you’re a believer this morning, have you been baptized? If not, let me ask you to consider being baptized, it is really the next step in your faith that shows that you truly believe.

If you’re a believer and have been baptized, let me call you to remember your baptism. When you were baptized as a believer the pastor typically says something along the lines of being buried in the likeness of his death and being raised to live in newness of life—are you as a believer truly living in newness of life?

Are you living in accordance to the truth in Scripture or have you returned to your former manner of living? If you are living in accordance to the truth in Scripture let me encourage you to continue doing so, but if you’ve returned to that former manner of living, let me call you to repent and to turn back to Jesus Christ.

To wrap everything up this morning, remember that you are not Jesus Christ, but if you believe in Jesus this morning, you know Jesus Christ who planned your salvation since the foundation of the world—live in accordance to these truths, live in the comfort of knowing that your God is in completely control and live your lives in a manner that Jesus is proclaimed as God who ranks before each of us and who loves each of us enough to save us from our sins.