John the Baptist (John 1:19-51)

Jesus the Name High Over All (Charles Wesley 1749)

John 1 (interlinear Greek) John 1:19-51 (KJV – NRSV)

Key verse (1:29, KJV): Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.

Meditation (1:26): in the midst of you standeth one

Testimony of John

¹⁹ And this is the witness of John, when the Jews sent unto him from Jerusalem priests and Levites to ask him, Who art thou? ²⁰ And he confessed, and denied not; and he confessed, I am not the Christ. ²¹ And they asked him, What then? Art thou Elijah? And he saith, I am not. Art thou the prophet? And he answered, No. ²² They said therefore unto him, Who art thou? that we may give an answer to them that sent us. What sayest thou of thyself? ²³ He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said Isaiah the prophet. ²⁴ And they had been sent from the Pharisees. ²⁵ And they asked him, and said unto him, Why then baptizest thou, if thou art not the Christ, neither Elijah, neither the prophet? ²⁶ John answered them, saying, I baptize in water: in the midst of you standeth one whom ye know not, ²⁷ even he that cometh after me, the latchet of whose shoe I am not worthy to unloose. ²⁸ These things were done in Bethany beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing.

“Though God had highly honored him, and favored him with peculiar influence in the discharge of his work, yet he considered he had nothing but what he had received, and therefore, giving all praise to his benefactor, takes care to direct the attention of the people to him alone from whom he had received his mercies.” (Clarke) This speaks for itself. We are to point the way to Christ. John “has no special message, as was usually the case with the prophets, but that he was merely appointed to be the herald of Christ.” (Calvin)

We see in this passage an expectation that the readers had a good knowledge of Jewish thought. Levites and priests encountering John the Baptist (not the author of this Gospel or the letters) thought he might be the one they hoped would come to save their people from oppression (the Christ or Messiah). He clearly says he is not the Christ. Jewish followers would know Elijah (Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord, Mal 4:5) and the prophet were expected to return prior to the coming of the awaited Messiah. “The prophet or teacher promised by Moses was no other than the Messiah himself.” (Clarke) I will raise them up a prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee; and I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him. (Deut 18:18)

In the gospel of Matthew Jesus calls John the Baptist the forerunner (For this is he, of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee, Mt 11:10) and in Luke, the angel Gabriel told Zacharias that his son John shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. (Lk 1:17). The prophet refers to a promise to Moses, The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken (Dt 18:15) who was also expected to precede the Messiah. The reference to Isaiah is The voice of one that crieth, Prepare ye in the wilderness the way of Jehovah; make level in the desert a highway for our God. (Is 40:3)

“Baptism was a very common ceremony among the Jews, who never received a proselyte into the full enjoyment of a Jew’s privileges, till he was both baptized and circumcised. But such baptisms were never performed except by an ordinance of the Sanhedrin, or in the presence of three magistrates: besides, they never baptized any Jew or Jewess, nor even those who were the children of their proselytes; for, as all these were considered as born in the covenant, they had no need of baptism.” (Clarke) Only Elijah or the Messiah would be allowed to change the rules. “For John to baptize is an unlawful novelty, since he has received from God no public station. But they are wrong in not acknowledging him to be that Elijah who is mentioned by Malachi 4:5 [Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD]; though he denies that he is that Elijah of whom they foolishly dreamed.” (Calvin) The Pharisees “imagined that the same Elijah, who lived under the reign of king Ahab, was to come.” (Calvin) That is, reincarnated.

“John claims nothing for himself but what he has a right to claim… he has nothing but the administration of the outward sign, while the whole power and efficacy is in the hands of Christ alone… by declaring that he has not the power of the Spirit, he exalts the dignity of Christ, that the eyes of men may be fixed on him alone.” (Calvin) We are to look to Christ He is in our idst as he was in the idst of the disciples around John the Baptist It is true that we are still called to baptize believers keeping in ind that “Christ alone performs what baptism figuratively represents, and that we have nothing beyond the bare administration of the sign.” (Calvin)

In the midst of you standeth one is a worthy passage to meditate upon, imagining ourselves there with the disciples of John beside the Jordan River. “When he says that Christ standeth in the midst of, them, it is that he may excite their desire and their exertion to know him.” (Calvin)

Lamb of God

²⁹ On the morrow he seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold, the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world! ³⁰ This is he of whom I said, After me cometh a man who is become before me: for he was before me. ³¹ And I knew him not; but that he should be made manifest to Israel, for this cause came I baptizing in water. ³² And John bare witness, saying, I have beheld the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven; and it abode upon him. ³³ And I knew him not: but he that sent me to baptize in water, he said unto me, Upon whomsoever thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and abiding upon him, the same is he that baptizeth in the Holy Spirit. ³⁴ And I have seen, and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.

In verse 29, observe that the word sin is not plural. The Evangelist is not pointing to our manifold sins as individual sins that require repentance and forgiveness. Rather John tells us that the Lab of God will take away the principle of sin in us and in the world. We recall here the distinction Paul makes between sin and sins in his Letter to the Romans. For Paul, sin is a power that drives us to disobey God. So now it is no more I that do it, but sin which dwelleth in me. (Romans 7:17) In saving the world from sin, the Lamb of God delivers us from this power. Sins are actual transgressions against the will of God, the fruit of sin, its consequence. John is not teaching any doctrine that differs from that of Paul. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and of death. (Romans 8:2)

John the Baptist said I knew him not, but from the synoptic Gospels we know him to have been the cousin of Jesus. “Although he recognizes Christ whenever he sees him, still it does not cease to be true that they were not known to each other according to the ordinary custom of men, for the commencement of his knowledge proceeded from God.” (Calvin) The humility of John here should be noted. “We should not rely too much on ministers of the gospel. They cannot save us any more than John could; and their office, as his was, is simply to direct people to the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.” (Barnes)

Here we discover “the principal office of Christ… that he takes away the sins of the world by the sacrifice of his death, and reconciles men to God.” (Calvin) How is it that he takes away the sin? “By the word Lamb he alludes to the ancient sacrifices of the Law.” (Calvin) We are mistaken if we focus on the outward sign of the sacrifice Rather “Christ, by bearing our sins, takes them away… he hath reconciled the Father to us by means of his death; for this is what he means by the word Lamb.” (Calvin) This taking away of sin as a principle is a one-time event. We are once justified. But that does not make us perfect, with the expectation that we will never again disobey God. For this, we need the continuing operation of the Holy Spirit in our lives, which commences with baptism in the Spirit.

If Jesus was already God (as was established in the Prologue), why did the Spirit need to descend upon him? Some have interpreted this passage as signaling the moment when Jesus became divine. It is not that at all. It is a sign from God to show who Jesus already is and it shows the trinity. “The person of Jesus Christ, baptized by John in Jordan. The person of the Holy Ghost in a bodily shape, like a dove. The person of the Father; a voice came out of heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son.” (Clarke) Calvin explains that “the dove was a certain and infallible sign of the presence of the Spirit… not that he is in reality the Spirit, but that he points him out, as far as human capacity can admit… In like manner, we know that the body of Christ is not connected with the bread, and yet we are partakers of his body.”

God had revealed to John the Baptist that Jesus was the chosen one, the very Lamb of God. On the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur), the high priest would place his hands on the head of a young goat, confessing all the sins of the people. Then, he sent the goat into the wilderness to carry away the guilt of the people. Just, so Jesus takes away the sins of the entire world, not just the people of Israel. John Wesley tells us that John baptized “to show that Jews, as well as Gentiles, must be proselytes to Christ, and that these as well as those stand in need of being washed from their sins.” Matthew Henry links this to “the voice from heaven [that] proclaimed… not only that he [Jesus] should baptize with the Holy Ghost by a divine authority, but that he has a divine nature.”

“The continual morning and evening sacrifice of a lamb, under the Jewish law, was intended to point out the continual efficacy of the blood of atonement… all the lambs which had been hitherto offered had been furnished by men: this [Lamb of God] was provided by God, as the only sufficient and available sacrifice for the sin of the world.” (Clarke)

Here we have the two great things Jesus came to do: to take away the sin of the world (we call this justification) and to baptize in the Holy Spirit (which we call sanctification). Again, we can look to Paul for further explanation. If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwelleth in you, he that raised up Christ Jesus from the dead shall give life also to your mortal bodies through his Spirit that dwelleth in you. (Romans 8:11) To be baptized in the Spirit is to be filled with the Holy Spirit, the very power of God that gives life to our mortal bodies. Just as John the Baptist immersed those who repented in water to represent their transformation, Jesus baptizes us in the Holy Spirit to give us new life. The Jewish reader would have been reminded of the promise to Ezekiel, I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. ²⁶ A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. (Ez 36:25-26)

First Disciples

³⁵ Again on the morrow John was standing, and two of his disciples; ³⁶ and he looked upon Jesus as he walked, and saith, Behold, the Lamb of God! ³⁷ And the two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus. ³⁸ And Jesus turned, and beheld them following, and saith unto them, What seek ye? And they said unto him, Rabbi (which is to say, being interpreted, Teacher), where abidest thou? ³⁹ He saith unto them, Come, and ye shall see. They came therefore and saw where he abode; and they abode with him that day: it was about the tenth hour. ⁴⁰ One of the two that heard John speak, and followed him, was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. ⁴¹ He findeth first his own brother Simon, and saith unto him, We have found the Messiah (which is, being interpreted, Christ). ⁴² He brought him unto Jesus. Jesus looked upon him, and said, Thou art Simon the son of John: thou shalt be called Cephas (which is by interpretation, Peter).

Two disciples of the Baptist followed Jesus as a direct result of his witness. One was Andrew and the other is thought to be John, the author of this Gospel. Andrew went to find his brother Peter, who evidently was not a follower of the Baptist, but eagerly chose to follow the Messiah. And, “when they come, he gently encourages and exhorts them.” (Calvin) We find here two means by which we can bring people to Christ: by preaching the truth of Who He is and by bringing a friend or relative to meet Him. Come, and ye shall see. When we point the way, Jesus “will stretch out his hand to assist our endeavors.” (Calvin)

It is fair to ask those who come in response to the invitation, What seek ye? These early disciples addressed Jesus as Rabbi (Teacher) and sought to dwell with him that they might learn humbly sitting “at his feet.” In this, as for the disciples, we must “first show ourselves to be submissive and obedient; and next, let us not shrink from inquiry, when Christ himself is ready to remove the doubts which harass us.” (Calvin) Oswald Chambers explains, “Discipleship means personal, passionate devotion to a Person, our Lord Jesus Christ… No man on earth has this passionate love to the Lord Jesus unless the Holy Ghost has imparted it to him. We may admire Him, we may respect Him and reverence Him, but we cannot love Him.”

“He dwells not in the tumult of worldly affairs, nor in profane assemblies, nor in worldly pleasures, nor in the place where drunkards proclaim their shame, nor in carelessness and indolence. But he is found in his temple, wherever two or three are gathered together in his name, in secret prayer, in self-denial, in fasting, in self-examination… Those who find Jesus find in him a treasure of wisdom and knowledge, through which they may not only become rich themselves, but be instruments, in the hand of God, of enriching others. These disciples, having tasted the good word of Christ, were not willing to eat their bread alone, but went and invited others to partake with them.” (Clarke)

It was not that the disciples expected to get something from Jesus. In fact, there is good evidence that the Apostle John and his mother Salome were wealthy and helped support the ministry of Christ. The disciples simply wanted to be with him. They believed the testimony of the Baptist and saw in Him the glory of God. Jesus invited them to come and see, much like we might invite a new friend for coffee. They honored Him as a great Teacher, but He was also their friend. He calls us to the same. We should never hesitate to go all in with Jesus.

Philip and Nathaniel

⁴³ On the morrow he was minded to go forth into Galilee, and he findeth Philip: and Jesus saith unto him, Follow me. ⁴⁴ Now Philip was from Bethsaida, of the city of Andrew and Peter. ⁴⁵ Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith unto him, We have found him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. ⁴⁶ And Nathanael said unto him, Can any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip saith unto him, Come and see. ⁴⁷ Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him, and saith of him, Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile! ⁴⁸ Nathanael saith unto him, Whence knowest thou me? Jesus answered and said unto him, Before Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee. ⁴⁹ Nathanael answered him, Rabbi, thou art the Son of God; thou art King of Israel. ⁵⁰ Jesus answered and said unto him, Because I said unto thee, I saw thee underneath the fig tree, believest thou? thou shalt see greater things than these. ⁵¹ And he saith unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye shall see the heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.

“There are many proofs that the Jewish rabbins chose the shade of trees, and particularly the fig tree, to sit and study under.” So, we might expect Nathanael was “engaged in prayer with God, for the speedy appearing of the salvation of Israel; and the shade of this fig tree was perhaps the ordinary place of retreat for this upright man.” (Clarke) Jesus saw in him “a man without trick or design; a man that one may trust; no guile towards God, that is, sincere in his repentance for sin; sincere in his covenanting with God.” (Matthew Henry) Philip “did not sit down to reason with him, or speculate about the possibility that a good thing could come from Nazareth; but he asked him to go and examine for himself, to see the Lord Jesus, to hear him converse, to lay aside his prejudice, and to judge from a fair and candid personal inquiry… If men can be persuaded to come to Jesus, all their petty and foolish objections against religion will vanish. They will be satisfied from their own experience that it is true, and in this way only will they ever be satisfied.” (Barnes)

“That by the angels of God ascending and descending, is to be understood, that a perpetual intercourse should now be opened between heaven and earth, through the medium of Christ, who was God manifested in the flesh.” (Clarke)

Videos

Knowing Who You Are: John 1:19-28 (Colin Smith)

Knowing Who Jesus Is: John 1:29-34 (Colin Smith)

The Power of Invitation: John 1:35-42 (Colin Smith)

Responses to Jesus: John 1:43-51 (Colin Smith)

The First Testimony Concerning Jesus: John 1:19-37 Part 1 (John MacArthur)

The First Testimony Concerning Jesus: John 1:19-37 Part 2 (John MacArthur)

The Disciples’ Testimony Concerning Jesus: John 1:38-51 (John MacArthur)

Thru the Bible: John 1:19-50 (J. Vernon McGee)

Sources

Albert Barnes, Notes on the Whole Bible (1832)

John Calvin, Commentary on the Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ According to John (1533)

Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest (1925)

Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Whole Bible (1826)

John Wesley, Wesley’s Notes on the Bible (1755)