Passage: John 1:19-34
The Big Idea
When the religious leaders demanded to know who John the Baptist was, he refused to make it about himself. He wasn’t the Christ, Elijah or the Prophet. He was just a voice pointing to Jesus: the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, and the Son of God who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.
The Witness Stand
In John 1:15-18 we saw the big picture: God used John the Baptist to introduce the New Grace Order Jesus came to bring. Now we hear exactly what John testified.
In court, a witness speaks about what he has seen and knows. The Gospel of John gives us several of these witnesses, four of them in this chapter alone. Why? So that you can believe (John 20:31).
We might picture John as a wild religious fanatic teaching a new set of rules: “Stop doing this and start doing that!” More law?
But John’s real testimony was to point people to Jesus: to help us understand who Jesus really is, and to get people ready to hear Him and receive the grace He was bringing.
“Who Are You?” (John 1:19)
The Jewish leaders in Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask John who he was.
These were the religious leaders of the day, representing the old way built on the Law and its hundreds of commands. They wanted to know what this new guy was all about.
- Priests were supposed to connect people to God. Instead, many had made a relationship with God into a burden.
- Levites served alongside the priests. In Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan, a priest and a Levite both walk past the wounded man without helping, a picture of religion without love (Luke 10:31-32).
But God can transform anyone from those backgrounds:
- John the Baptist himself came from a priestly family; his father Zechariah was a priest (Luke 1:5). God used him to help people get ready to receive Jesus’ love, which would change them into loving people.
- Barnabas was a Levite from Cyprus who sold a field and gave the money to the apostles (Acts 4:36-37). Transformed by love.
The leaders wanted to know who John was, and he wasn’t interested in answering. He wanted to talk about his mission: preparing the way for the Messiah.
“I Am Not the Christ” (John 1:20)
John confessed openly and didn’t hold back: he was not the Christ.
John knew he wasn’t the Messiah, and he said so clearly. But the way the sentence is built in Greek puts emphasis on the “I”: I am not the Christ. As if to say, “But He’s around here somewhere. Keep your eyes open. You’re getting close.” That might have worried them even more.
John was steadfast in humility. To point people to Jesus, we have to love nothing more than Him in our own hearts. People love to talk about what they love, and it flows from the heart. That’s why it’s so hard to listen to a speech that doesn’t come from the heart. We can always tell when someone is insincere, giving a canned talk or repeating someone else’s thoughts.
John was obsessed with Jesus, and it showed in everything he said and did. May we be obsessed with Jesus too.
“Can you be so heavenly minded you’re no earthly good?” Paul says that since we’ve been raised with Christ, we set our minds on things above, where Christ is (Colossians 3:1-2). Everything else is a distraction. Once we’re united with Jesus, it stops being about us. Our life is hidden with Christ, and Christ is our life (Colossians 3:3-4).
“Are You Elijah? The Prophet?” (John 1:21)
They kept guessing: Are you Elijah? No. Are you the Prophet? No.
You’re barking up the wrong tree. John’s identity didn’t matter to him. He found his whole identity in Jesus.
- Elijah: Malachi prophesied that Elijah would come before the great day of the Lord (Malachi 4:5). Jesus later said John came in the spirit and power of Elijah and fulfilled that role (Matthew 11:14; Luke 1:17). But John didn’t need to toot his own locust.
- The Prophet: Moses had promised that God would raise up a Prophet like him (Deuteronomy 18:15). Wrong again. That Prophet is Jesus (Acts 3:22).
“I Am a Voice” (John 1:22-23)
Finally they asked, “Then who are you? What do you say about yourself?” John answered with Isaiah’s words: he is the voice crying in the wilderness, “Make straight the way of the Lord” (Isaiah 40:3).
John wasn’t obsessed with rules and law, as some think. He was obsessed with Jesus. He received his mission from God and quoted the verse God gave him as his life purpose: “My job is to point y’all to Jesus. He’s bringing the New Grace Order we all need.”
Why Baptize? (John 1:24-28)
Some Pharisees asked why he was baptizing if he wasn’t the Christ, Elijah or the Prophet. John said he baptized with water, but One was standing among them whom they didn’t know, One coming after him whose sandal strap he wasn’t worthy to untie.
In John’s day, Jewish people practiced ritual self-immersion in pools called mikvehs:
- For purity laws: cleansing after ritual defilement.
- For priestly preparation: Aaron and his sons washed before serving in the tabernacle.
- For converts: Gentiles converting to Judaism were immersed, symbolizing a total break from their past and a rebirth.
Self, self, self.
To submit to John’s baptism, a Jew had to identify with Gentile converts, admitting he needed a fresh start just as much as an outsider. That was a real sign of repentance, and a humbling one, since many looked down on Gentiles as unclean outsiders.
So John was repurposing the whole system of washing for the New Grace Order:
- Instead of washing yourself, it’s done to you.
- Instead of national pride (thinking you’re right with God because of your nation), it’s humility and equality with all people.
- Instead of outward cleansing, it points to the blood of Jesus cleansing the heart.
All good grace stuff!
The leaders wanted to know John’s authority. John pointed them to a completely new order with one authority. The new King is coming.
“Behold, the Lamb of God!” (John 1:29)
The next day John saw Jesus coming and said: Look! The Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!
Behold means look closely. Study Him. Focus on Him.
The Messiah’s mission was clear from the start: death. That’s what “Lamb of God” means. Sacrifice.
The sacrificial lamb shows up again and again in the Old Testament, and Jesus fulfills every one:
- The Lamb slain from the foundation of the world (Revelation 13:8).
- The animal killed in Eden to cover the nakedness of the first sinners (Genesis 3:21).
- The lamb God Himself provided for Abraham in place of Isaac (Genesis 22:8, 13).
- The Passover lamb for Israel (Exodus 12).
- The lamb of the guilt offering in the Levitical sacrifices.
- Isaiah’s lamb led to the slaughter (Isaiah 53:7).
Each of those lambs fulfilled its role by dying. This was an announcement that Jesus would die as a sacrifice for the sin of the world.
Sins vs. sin
There’s a huge difference between the old sacrificial system and the New Grace Order.
- The old system provided temporary forgiveness for the people’s sins.
- The New Covenant removes the underlying problem, our sin nature, along with the individual sins we commit.
Because Jesus takes away the real issue, you don’t have to live trying to get forgiven over and over.
- Believers are forgiven once for all (Hebrews 10:10-14).
- The cross is the accepted payment, not our repeated rituals of asking. (Can I pay for my groceries with a dance I made up, or by begging and pleading?)
- The blood of bulls and goats could never take away sins (Hebrews 10:4). But the Lamb of God takes away sin.
The whole world
Jesus’ blood is valuable enough to pay for the sin of every single person in the world, even your biggest mistakes. And when we doubt that, we dishonor the Father by minimizing the value of the Son He loves.
The Son of God (John 1:30-34)
John said again that this was the One who ranked ahead of him because He existed before him. John hadn’t known who He would be, but God told him: the One on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is the One who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. And John saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove and remain on Jesus. So he testified: this is the Son of God.
- God opened John’s eyes to see the Spirit in visible form coming on Jesus.
- Jesus was already one with the Spirit. But God was showing us what it looks like for a person to be empowered and filled with the life of God. That’s what happens to all of us when we believe. Jesus baptizes us with the Holy Spirit.
- John’s solemn testimony: Jesus is the Son of God.
That’s what the Son of God does. He shares His death, burial and resurrection with us, and gives us the Holy Spirit as our new life.
Grace Takeaway
When people ask who you are, the best answer is the one John gave: “Look at Him.” Jesus is the Lamb who takes away your sin once for all, and the Son of God who fills you with His Spirit. Let your identity be found in pointing to Him.