We need to spend a bit more time on John the Baptist or "Baptizer" as we move on into the Gospel of the Apostle John. As I mentioned last week, you may think of John as the last of the Old Testament Prophets. He had been exposed to a revelation of the holiness of God and lived a very separate life with a very real awareness of his own sinfulness. A revelation of God's holiness produces that effect in a man and tears down pride.
His mother's name was Elizabeth and she was the older cousin of Mary. His father was named Zachariah and he was a priest. John's birth was miraculous because Elizabeth had always been barren. Gabriel told Zachariah he would have a godly son who would minister like Elijah and that Elizabeth would be the mother. Zachariah, being old like some of us, argued with an angel in the Holy of Holies and therefore he got the sign of Gabriel's truthfulness and authority by being unable to speak. If Gabriel brings a message from God then don't argue. Mary said the right thing. Mary said "Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word." That is how you talk to Gabriel and walk away still able to talk. Their culture is different from ours but Elizabeth was judged for not having children and then when she got pregnant it was Zachariah who was viewed as hitting a home run one handed with his eyes closed. The relatives were insisting on naming the new baby Zachariah to celebrate his success and poor Elizabeth was about to be overruled until Zachariah independently confirmed that the baby's name was to be John.
John lived under a special set of vows that made him a Nazerite like Samson only John actually kept kosher while Samson did not. I mentioned last week that John really stirred things up and for the historians first century it was John who was the big news. This was because he was the first prophet in 400 years. He opposed the religious authorities of the day by calling everyone to a baptism of repentance. He opposed the ruler of the day too and that eventually resulted in John's decapitation. John was such big news during his ministry that the priests and Levites wanted to know the "who" and "why" of his radical outreach.
John 1:19-20
And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, "Who are you?" He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, "I am not the Christ."
In this verse, John states in the strongest way that he is not Christ because one of the rumors that had been circulating was that John himself was the Christ. We will get to a series of "I am" statements of Jesus but I especially like that this verse (because of Greek grammar) transliterates something like "not I am that Christ". Translators complain about this Greek sentence but John the Baptist is closing off all discussion of him being Christ.
In writing this Gospel the Apostle John was standing in a particularly firm way against those who were called Gnostics. The many types of Gnostics have a root similarity in that they seek special knowledge. Gnosis is part of our words like diagnosis and prognosis and this special knowledge claimed by the Gnostics lets those "in the know" be more spiritual than even an Apostle. So, if you can stay with me on which John I'm talking about, it is particularly ironic after 2000 years that there exists a Gnostic group called the Mandeans in Iraq that claim to follow the teaching of John the Baptist. I'm sure that their version of John the Baptist's teaching is an odd Gnostic enhancement to the truth but they are dwindling away in our day. This is because the river formed by the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates called the Shatt al Arab waterway (where they baptize) near Basra is so small and polluted they can no longer baptize in it and are forced to use an indoor pool. This was covered in a New York Times story in June of this year. John the Baptist would never have attracted attention to himself in this way and he knew that he simply went before Christ. The cult of the Mandeans is a Gnostic distortion of truth as the Gnostics in all ages are. However, for John the Baptist, the Pharisee's reporters wouldn't go back without some sort of answer.
John 1:21
And they asked him, "What then? Are you Elijah?" He said, "I am not." "Are you the Prophet?" And he answered, "No." 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?" 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."
John was not physically Elijah and a misunderstanding of prior Scripture (Malachi 4:5) had lead the Pharisees to expect Elijah in person. John was preaching in the spirit of Elijah and Jesus confirmed that for us in Matthew 11:14. God doesn't do reincarnation. Herod was even afraid that John the Baptist was reincarnated in Jesus (Mark 6:16). John knew his role and was as willing as a sinful man can be to fulfill his role in the most important event in history.
John points to Isaiah 40 and says that he is a voice crying out in the wilderness. John could live along the edges of civilization but the wilderness of most importance was the wilderness of human sin that was the "civilization". We usually picture John preaching with the wilderness behind him but really the wilderness of snakes and vipers was in the city. John's call was for those hearts to get ready by repentance (turning from their sinful ways) for the Christ.
John 1:24-28
(Now they had been sent from the Pharisees.) They asked him, "Then why are you baptizing, if you are neither the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?" John answered them, "I baptize with water, but 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." These things took place in Bethany across the Jordan, where John was baptizing.
So the reporters ask a dumb question. If John the Baptist was the voice of one crying out in the wilderness then he is baptizing to prepare hearts for the Christ. John could have told them to go read Isaiah and stop acting like you haven't even had your bar mitzvah yet. But he answers, as he should, by faithfully pointing to Christ.
It was customary for the disciples of John's day to follow and minister to the teacher. They would take care of all the details of life for the teacher as payment for being disciples. So you might imagine that the lowest of the low in the disciple "food chain" would be the disciple in charge of sandal strap untying and tying. It is very important that we realize that what John the Baptist says was not expressing false humility or hyperbole. This is statement of fact. In Matthew 11:11 Jesus said, "Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he." John needed the Savior. Think of this. John was the best. He was better than Mary. He was a better Elijah than Elijah. But he didn't qualify for the Kingdom without that righteousness that was imputed to him from Christ the Savior. You need that conviction of sin and awareness of God's holiness that is given by the Holy Spirit as he works within you. John was right about the sandal and Jesus confirmed it. How about you? Do you have that same awareness of your need for a savior?
John 1:29-34
The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! This is he of whom I said, 'After me comes a man who ranks before me, because he was before me.' I myself did not know him, but for this purpose I came baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to Israel." And John bore witness: "I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. 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.' And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God."
This was John's salvation. John knew to his core that his sins would condemn him without God's Grace. This was true even though he was the best son of Adam the earth had seen and his awareness of sin was in part the product of being the best son of Adam the earth had seen. God the Father sent John the Baptist and told him to look for God the Spirit to descend on God the Son. John had to be shouting really loudly. Even though John knew Jesus and even responded to Jesus "in utero" but he didn't see as the Lamb until it was revealed to him. God didn't let John know until the right moment that his ministry was being completed and that the Son of God was beginning His ministry.
While John's baptism is from heaven as Jesus stressed, we are not baptized with John's baptism. Our baptism is not simply a baptism of repentance. We are making a claim and giving a testimony that John the Baptist would have made had he had a different role.
Acts 18:24-28
Now a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was an eloquent man, competent in the Scriptures. He had been instructed in the way of the Lord. And being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, though he knew only the baptism of John. He began to speak boldly in the synagogue, but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him and explained to him the way of God more accurately. And when he wished to cross to Achaia, the brothers encouraged him and wrote to the disciples to welcome him. When he arrived, he greatly helped those who through grace had believed, for he powerfully refuted the Jews in public, showing by the Scriptures that the Christ was Jesus.
Apollos was a very sharp guy that God used for the Kingdom. However, at this point he had missed the point about baptism and needed to have it explained to him more accurately. Peter tells us in 1 Peter 3:20-21 that baptism corresponds to, or is a type of, Noah and the other 7 passing through the flood waters of God's wrath against sin. The flood was God's judgment and the Ark was God's Grace. We see it again in the deliverance of Jonah. The storm was God's judgment and the fish was God's Grace of Salvation. Noah and the other 7 and Jonah couldn't survive God's righteous judgment of their sins without Grace.
We testify in our baptism that we were justified in Christ as He went though the hell of God's wrath on the Cross. I'm testifying that He died for me specifically.
Romans 3:21-26
But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
Even John the Baptist needed to be "in Christ" as we do. Scripture says "in Jesus Christ" or "in Christ" over and over. We are carried through the waters God's wrath that should have destroyed us like they should have destroyed the Children of Israel except for God's Grace in parting the Red Sea (I Corinthians 10:2). God held the waters back in Grace. The Corinthian church was warned about giving a false testimony like many of the Children of Israel gave after the baptism in the Cloud and in the Sea.
Romans 6:1-4
What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
At this point we are really talking about a doctrine known as "limited" or "particular" atonement. It gave us the name of "Particular Baptists" a long time ago. I like the term "specific atonement" because Christ knew who he was redeeming.
When you were baptized you were testifying with water that you were there in Christ by the gracious election of God when Jesus died on that tree in the hell of the Father's wrath for your sin. That is a serious confession and one that we are charged to work out with fear and trembling. I think you can see why I like lots of water at a baptism.
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