Jesus Christ In The Writings Of John
THE WITNESS OF JOHN THE BAPTIST
Lesson Text:
John 1:19-34 (KJV) [also read John 3:22-36; Mal. 3:1-3; 4:5, 6]
Subject:
How John Bore Witness to Jesus
Golden Text:
“Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world.” (John 1:29)
Lesson Plan:
1. INTRODUCTION
2. THE WITNESS OF JOHN’S PREACHING
3.THE WITNESS TO THE DELEGATION FROM JERUSALEM (VS. 19-24)
4. THE WITNESS OF JOHN'S BAPTISM (VS. 25-28)
5. WITNESS OF JOHN POINTING OUT JESUS TO HIS DISCIPLES (VS. 29-34)
6. CONCLUSION
Setting of the Lesson:
Time: John the Baptist began preaching in the summer of A.D. 26. He had been preaching about six months when Jesus came to him to be baptized, and was pointed out by the Baptist as the Messiah about January, A.D. 27. The deputation of the Pharisees was six or seven weeks later, in February.
Place: John preached chiefly in the Wilderness of Judea, a thinly inhabited region west of the lower Jordan and the Dead Sea. Jesus came to him and was pointed out to the people at Bethabra (ford-house or boat-house), beyond Jordan, fourteen miles south of the Sea of Galilee, called “Bethany,” in the R.V.
Intervening History:
The childhood and youth of Jesus, thirty years; His baptism by John; the temptation. Jesus – Thirty years old, just entering His ministry. John the Baptist – Thirty and one-half years old, having preached six or eight months in the wilderness.
Rulers – Tiberius Caesar, emperor of Rome, 15th year from his association with Augustus (Luke 3:1), but 13th as sole emperor. Pontius Pilate, governor of Judea (2nd year). Herod Antipas, tetrarch of Galilee (31st year).
Research and Discussion:
John the Baptist.
How he prepared the way for Jesus.
Different ways in which he bore witness to Jesus.
The character and nobleness of John as shown in this lesson.
The success of men who seem to fail.
Why Jesus is called the “Lamb of God.”
1. INTRODUCTION
This lesson is best considered through a series of scenes showing how John bore witness to Jesus, introducing Him to the people. These scenes should be set forth in such a way that students will see the real doings of real living people. In order to accomplish this use your imagination and see the transactions, in your mind's eye point out each person, each act, as on a picture spreading out before your presence.
John the Baptist
Born in the summer of B.C. 5, probably at Hebron, six months before Jesus. His parents’ names were Zacharias and Elizabeth, both of priestly descent from Aaron. John was a relative of Jesus (Luke 1:36). For thirty years he lived a retired, ascetic life in the wilds of his native land. Doubtless, during these silent years, he had been studying the ancient prophecies, watching the tendencies of the times, their sins and their danger; and, in communion with God, had seen the only way of safety. Then the Word “came ‘upon’ him, as it literally reads, probably in one of those wonderful theophanies, as when God spoke to Moses from the flaming bush, or as when He appeared to Elijah upon Horeb.” (Burton). Suddenly, like Elijah of old, with an abruptness almost like a flash of lightning from a clear sky, he appeared “a burning and shining light among the hills of Judea.”
His appearance was like that of the great prophet Elijah as he appeared, and, doubtless, correctly, to the popular mind. He was their ideal of a great prophet, raised above caring for temporal things, and protesting against the luxury of the age. He was clothed in the coarse, rough cloth called, in the Scriptures, “sackcloth,” manufactured from the long and shaggy hair of the camel. It was cheap, but admirable for keeping out the heat, cold, and rain. This mantle was girded around him with a leather girdle of undressed hide. His food consisted of locusts, closely resembling our grasshoppers, and wild honey, which is found abundantly in the hollows of old trees or in rocks in Palestine. His manner of living was natural and easy under the circumstances.
His work was to bear witness to Christ, and prepare the way for His mission of Redemption. For six months before Jesus began His public ministry and for more than a year contemporary with Him, John bore witness before the people, the Jewish priests, the Roman soldiers, the rulers, the king, with heroic courage and noblest faithfulness. Then for a year more he bore silent witness as a prisoner in Herod’s castle, and when his work was accomplished, then, as the blossoms fall when their work for the fruit is done, he joined the glorious army of the martyrs who “Climb the rugged steeps to heaven, Through peril, toil, and pain,” to sing with them the song of triumph of Moses and the Lamb.
A hero of the ages
John’s life from beginning to end was heroic. His willingness to seem a failure in order to be a success just doing his work was heroic. Seeming failure is often the greatest success. James Martineau once said, “A world without failure would be a world without agony, and a world without agony would be a world without hero, saint, or martyr.” History has made immortal not only the men who have achieved great success, but those who have been worldly failures while achieving the success of faith, courage, righteousness and self-sacrifice. Hannibal, Leonidas, Socrates, Savonarola, Dante, and a long list of other names are immortal, while the seemingly successful men of their day are forgotten. The seeming failures are often the inspirers and comforters of the world.
John’s mission, fulfillment of prophecy, a vision across the ages
Centuries before His coming, prophets foretold the Christ, the Redeemer. With divinely illumined vision they had seen Him, picturing in wondrous colors, and the glories of His reign. For ages these visions had been spread out before the Jewish people, possessing their thoughts and hopes. But the beginnings were so small, so feeble, so different from their expectations, dazzled by the glories of the final outcome that they were in danger of not recognizing the Redeemer when He did come, as the stars cannot be seen when the sun is shining.
But two prophets foretold a sign which would bear witness to His coming. Isaiah (40:3) pictured the work of one who would immediately precede the Messiah, preparing the way before Him. And Malachi showed the forerunner coming in the spirit and power of Elijah.
John the Baptist was the realization of the portrait, doing exactly what the forerunner was expected to do, and thus he bore witness that the promised Messiah was at hand, as the morning star is the forerunner of the sun.
2. THE WITNESS OF JOHN'S PREACHING
Scene: the wilderness of Judea
John preaching. Great crowds of all classes of men flocking to hear him. Multitudes baptized confessing their sins. Indications of great expectancy and excitement.
John's preaching was well adapted to awaken a consciousness of guilt, danger and need. He denounced the sin of men to their faces. His preaching was of the “Thou art the man” order. He told Herod that he was a criminal, the Pharisees that they were a brood of vipers; he bade the soldiers cease from violence, and the publicans from dishonesty. He appealed to patriotism, showing that the nation was a fruitless tree, and that the ax was already lying at its root. He made men see that unquenchable fire was burning, consuming those who insisted on being like worthless chaff, or like trees bearing evil fruit.
How did this bear witness to Christ?
Jesus Christ was at hand with help for every one of these needs – forgiveness for the guilty, victory for the tempted, safety for those in danger, food for the spiritually hungry, the water of life for the thirsty, guidance for the erring, comfort for the sorrowing, healing for the sick, new life for the dying, hope for the hopeless, satisfaction for every need, “love divine all love excelling,” for all. So far as John made them feel their needs, that’s how far his witness was effective for the Savior Who could meet their needs with inexhaustible supplies.Jesus Christ was at hand with help for every one of these needs – forgiveness for the guilty, victory for the tempted, safety for those in danger, food for the spiritually hungry, the water of life for the thirsty, guidance for the erring, comfort for the sorrowing, healing for the sick, new life for the dying, hope for the hopeless, satisfaction for every need, “love divine all love excelling,” for all. So far as John made them feel their needs, that’s how far his witness was effective for the Savior Who could meet their needs with inexhaustible supplies.
SCRIPTURE READING: JOHN 1:19-24
3. THE WITNESS TO THE DELEGATION FROM JERUSALEM
Scene: at Bethabara – on the banks of the Jordan
Here begins the historical story of the manifestation of the Word made flesh, considered in the last lesson. John the Baptist had been preaching some months. He had baptized Jesus (Matt. 3:13-17), and seen the signs by which he recognized Jesus as the Messiah (vs. 32-34). Jesus had passed through His testing by the temptations in the wilderness (Matt. 4:1-11). The statements following the words “The next day” in v. 29 make this order certain.
1:19 ... “This is the record [the witness] of John” on three successive days. It was a time of excitement and ferment respecting the Messiah. The thoughts of the new dispensation were in the air, but with a confusion of definite expectations. John’s appearance, preaching and great success aroused the inquiring minds of even the rulers.
1:19 ... “The Jews.” Probably the Sanhedrim, source of authority; composed of priests, elders and scribes, but they
1:19 ... “sent priests and Levites,” probably because John the Baptist’s father was a priest. Those sent were Pharisees (v. 24), representing the religious and national hopes, having the most earnest expectations of the Messiah.
1:19 ... “To ask Him, Who art thou?” Not His name, but whom do you claim to be? The questions of the people as to whether this reformer was the Messiah or not had reached their ears.1
1:20 ... “He confessed, and denied not.” As if he had been tempted to claim honor which the people could have easily been induced to bestow on him, but “with earnestness, almost horror, he disclaimed” it. “His high conception of the office emphasizes his acknowledgment of Jesus” (Exp. Greek Test.). “He was not the Light, but was sent to bear witness of the Light” (v. 8).
1:20 ... “The Christ.” The Anointed One; Hebrew “the Messiah,” Whom they were expecting.
1:21 ... “Art thou Elias?” Elijah, the forerunner of the Messiah (Matt. 17:10; Mal. 4:5, 6).
1:21 ... “I am not.” Compare Matthew 11:14, where Christ says that John is Elijah. Christ speaks figuratively, John answers literally, and humbly, and in reply to the expectations of the people of a literal return of Elijah.
1:21 ... “Art thou that [the] prophet?” The well known prophet of Deuteronomy 18:15, who some thought would be a second Moses, others a second Elijah, others the Messiah. Allusion is made to this prophet in three other places (John 1:25; 6:14; 7:40).
1:23 ... “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness.” He was the fulfillment of a prophecy well known to them. John was a Voice making known the Word, meaningless without the Word.
John is called “a voice” because: (a) He was the utterer of God’s thought; (b) “The whole man was a sermon”; (c) He called attention not to himself, but to his message, as does every true (d) preacher and teacher of the Gospel.
Himself weak and insignificant, like words, sound, motion in the air, he yet produced a mighty effect on the souls of men. In the wilderness. A pathless, fruitless waste, which “fitly symbolizes the spiritual condition of the Messiah's people” (Exp. Greek Test.).
1:23 ... “Make straight the way of the Lord.” He prepared the way for Christ, as in the Orient with its shifting sands and imperfect roads; there was anciently a straightening and repairing of the roads when the king was to travel over them.2
The witness:
Not only John’s testimony but also his whole work of preparing for Christ was a witness.
Preparation of the road-bed:
Witness to the railroad and its trains?
Preparation of the ground, assembling of stones and lumber:
Witness to coming building?
Preparation of wires:
Witness to the coming of electric lights, cars, telegraph, telephones, and computers?
Etc.
SCRIPTURE READING: JOHN 1:25-28
4. THE WITNESS OF JOHN’S BAPTISM
1:25 ... “Why baptizest thou then?” They expected a general purification before the coming of the Messiah (Zech. 13:1; Ezek. 36:25). If John was not the Messiah, not the divinely promised Elijah and prophet, by what right did he call men to repentance, asking them (the Jews) to join the kingdom of God by a rite used for proselytes becoming members of the Jewish religion and nation.
John’s answer:.
1:26 ... “I [emphatic] baptize with water [the sign and symbol of real purification, the preparation for the Messiah]: but there standeth one among you...” At this very time, though you do not recognize Him. He has been standing on these banks, mingled with the crowd, baptized in these waters, the One of Whom I testified
1:27 ... “Who coming after me is preferred before me,” and who is so much greater than I, that His
1:27 ... “shoe’s latchet I am not worthy to unloose.” The latchet was the leather thong or string which bound the shoe or sandal to the foot. Untying it was one of the most menial services one could do for another. As much as a prince was greater than his meanest slave, so much greater was Jesus than John.
1:28 ... “In Bethabara” (house of the ferry-boat). “Both revisions read ‘Bethany’ (boat-house). Not the Bethany of the Mount of Olives, for it was beyond the Jordan. Since the names have the same meaning, it is quite possible that it was called by both names indifferently” (Exp. Greek Test.), or the place was between the villages, and called by either.
SCRIPTURE READING: JOHN 1:29-34
5. WITNESS OF JOHN POINTING OUT JESUS TO HIS DISCIPLES
Scene: on the banks of the Jordan, at the Bethabra fords. Great crowds. Jesus among them, approaching John. The second of the three successive days.
1:29 ... “Behold the Lamb of God.” Jesus was so named by John, because the lamb was used in three ways as a symbol of the deliverance which Jesus brought:
1. John and his hearers were familiar with the representation in Isaiah (53:7) of the coming One, “as a lamb led to the slaughter.”
2. Even more would the Jew think of the Passover lamb, as the type and promise of national deliverance.
3. The daily sacrifice of a lamb was continually before the Jews, teaching them the meaning of all the sacrifices, continually reminding them of their need of atonement3 for sin.
It is well worth noting that Jesus died for our sins at the Passover feast, at the hour of daily sacrifice.
1:29 ... “Which taketh away the sin of the world.” “To bear away sin is to remove the guilt and punishment of sin by expiation, or to cause that sin be neither imputed nor punished” (Thayer's Greek English Lex.).
The work of Christ is to do this for the whole world.
Jesus provides redemption enough for the entire world.
He pardons past sin, no longer remembering them, blotting them out forever.
He is actually removing sin from the world. Wherever He comes; wherever there is a heart that accepts and obeys Him, sin is being removed.
1:30 ... “And I knew Him not.” Or, “I also knew Him not.” I, like you, did not at first know Him to be the Messiah. He now proceeds to tell them how he learned Who He was.
1:31 ... “But that He should be made manifest to Israel, therefore am I come baptizing with [in] water.” “While John did not know Jesus as the Messiah, until the hour of His baptism, he did know that his own work of baptizing in water was ordained for the purpose, among others, of manifesting the Messiah to Israel” (Hovey).
1:32 ... “And John bare record [witness] ... I saw.” Have seen, forty-two or more days before, when he baptized Jesus. The story is recorded in Matthew 3:16, 17; Mark 1:9-11.
1:32 ... “The Spirit descending from heaven [upon Jesus after His baptism] like a dove.” (R.V., “as a dove out of heaven”). “The Holy Spirit descended, not only in the manner of a dove, but in bodily shape (Luke 3:22); which I cannot understand in any but the literal sense as the bodily shape of a dove seen by the Baptist” (Alford).
1:32 ... “And it abode upon Him.” Pointing Him out, and expressing the permanence of the presence of the Holy Spirit.
1:33 ... “And I knew Him not.” Did nit recognize fully that He was the Messiah till this promised sign was given. Only by a divine revelation did he learn.
1:33 ... “He that sent me [John was conscious of his divine mission. He was sent by God] . . . the same is He which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost” and, therefore
1:34 ... “This is the Son of God.” God’s own peculiar only-begotten Son. God’s own voice confirmed the sign to John and the people (Matt. 3:17). Luke adds “and with fire,” to “baptizeth with the Holy Ghost” (3:16). “Baptism means cleansing, and fire means warmth. How can warmth cleanse? The answer is that moral warmth does cleanse. No heart is pure that is not passionate; no virtue is safe that is not enthusiastic” (Ecce Homo).
Symbols of the Holy Spirit4
“The dove” brooding “was symbolic of the quickening warmth of nature. In Jewish writings, the Spirit hovering over the primeval waters is expressly compared to a dove. Compare, also, Noah's dove as a symbol of the new creation” (Exp. Greek Test.). The “dove” expresses God’s abiding love in our hearts; and ever the Spirit produces, in the hearts of those dwelling in the Spirit, the dove-like nature, gentle, loving, attractive.
“Fire,” burning up the evil nature, cleansing the dross from the gold, warming, cheering, life-giving, enlightening.
“Water” cleanses, quenches thirst, refreshes, fertilizes, essential to fruits and flowers.
The witness was:
John’s testimony entirely disinterested and self-sacrificing. He gave his whole life bearing witness to Christ, resisting every temptation to gain notoriety, or making friends of the influential Pharisees.
It was the witness of facts that entirely convinced John himself.
It was the witness of a voice from heaven.
It was the witness of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. “It was the token that in Jesus are fulfilled the prophecies of the Old Testament with regard to the pouting out of the Spirit in the Messianic age, and especially to the impartation of the Spirit to the Messiah Himself (Is. 61:1; Luke 4:18), prophecies which describe the crowning glory of the latter days.” (Westcott)
The result of such witness is the assurance that Jesus is the Son of God, the Savior.
6. CONCLUSION
Witnessing is a two-fold work. One the complement of the other, and both needful:
We need the witness that Jesus is the Savior, for the sake of our spiritual life and growth. Our assurance of the Gospel depends on facts. Theories, vision, reasoning – are insufficient foundations for our hope. We need facts; we need the witness of those who know. Facts are the irrefutable evidence of Christianity. They are like Joseph’s wagons. The words of Jacob’s sons could not convince him that Joseph was alive, but when he saw the wagons his son had sent, he then believed. So the religion of Jesus is not mere theory; it is proved abundantly by facts. The fact that lives have been made better, changed for good, that wherever the Gospel enters a community or a nation it elevates them – like Joseph’s wagons, all facts that should convince men.
We should be witnesses for Christ and His Gospel. What Jesus has actually done for us, and in us, is our witness to Him. Every victory we gain through the Gospel, every virtue of Christ that shines through us is a witness.
Illustrations
There is a fable of an old lantern in a shed, which began to boast because it had heard its master say he didn't know what he would do without it. But the little wick within spoke up and said: “You’d be no comfort at all if it wasn’t for me. You are nothing; I’m the one giving the light.” Like the lantern, we are nothing. But Christ is everything. Our hope and goal should be to keep in communion with Him, letting Christ dwell in us richly, shining forth through us.
The lighthouse does not need to be labeled, “This is a lighthouse.” The light tells its own story. Pity the person who goes around with a little light, saying, “Look at my light! See how I shine!” If you are filled with the Spirit of God, you will shine – you do not have to shout it.
A Christian mother laid out for herself this program: “My aim, with God’s help, is to live so that Christians I meet might become better, and those I meet who are not yet Christians, might come to Christ.” She dedicated herself to being a daily witness of character and the perfecting of mind, body and spirit, so that her very life was a constant witness for her Master, Jesus Christ.
