"Now 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."
And they asked him, "What then? Are you Elijah?" He said, "I am not." "Are you the Prophet?" He answered, "No."
Then they said to him, "Who are you, that we may give an answer to those who sent us? What do you say about yourself?"
He said: "I am 'The voice of one crying in the wilderness: "Make straight the way of the Lord,"’ as the prophet Isaiah said."
Now those who were sent were from the Pharisees.
And they asked him, saying, "Why then do you baptize if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?"
John answered them, saying, "I baptize with water, but there stands One among you whom you do not know. "It is He who, coming after me, is preferred before me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose."
These things were done in Bethabara beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing.
The next day John 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 is preferred before me, for He was before me.’
"I did not know Him; but that He should be revealed to Israel, therefore I came baptizing with water." And John bore witness, saying, "I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and He remained upon Him.
"I did not know Him, but He who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘Upon whom you see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.'
"And I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God."
Again, the next day, John stood with two of his disciples.
And looking at Jesus as He walked, he said, "Behold the Lamb of God!"

MESSAGE:

The revival meeting down at the Jordan River was creating a stir! Evangelist John the Baptist was drawing large crowds and the rulers of the nation, at last, had been stirred to action. The interest was high and the message was strong. Matthew records that: "In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, REPENT, FOR THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN IS AT HAND." "Now John himself was clothed in camel's hair, with a leather belt around his waist; and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then Jerusalem, all Judea, and all the region around the Jordan went out to him, AND were baptized by him in the Jordan, confessing their sins.

But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, "BROOD OF VIPERS! WHO WARNED YOU TO FLEE FROM THE WRATH TO COME? therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not think to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones.

"And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire."

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Possibly the rulers had watched the proceedings with a measure of disdain, feeling that John was just another fanatical orator soon to be forgotten. The growing enthusiasm of the audiences, the compelling power of the preacher necessitated that some inquiry be made, and the official representatives of the hierarchy were sent to interrogate the evangelist.

In verses 6--8, 15 the evangelist has indicated the purpose of the ministry of John the Baptist, namely to focus the attention of everyone upon the true light, Jesus Christ, as the object of faith. In the paragraph which we are now studying we receive a detailed account of the Baptist's testimony as given before a committee sent by the Sanhedrin. And, with this passage John begins the narrative part of his gospel. In the prologue he has shown what he intends to do; he is writing his gospel to demonstrate that Jesus is the Mind, the Reason, the Word of God come into this world in the form of a human person. Having set down his central thought, he now begins the story of the life of Jesus. And that life begins with close ties to John the Baptist.

Luke gives us the historical background for the birth of John. (Luke 1:5-25)

"There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the division of Abijah. His wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth.
And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless.
But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and they were both well advanced in years.
So it was, that while he was serving as priest before God in the order of his division, according to the custom of the priesthood, his lot fell to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord.
And the whole multitude of the people was praying outside at the hour of incense.
Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing on the right side of the altar of incense.
And when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled, and fear fell upon him.
But the angel said to him, "Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your prayer is heard; and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John.
And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth.
For he will be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink. He will also be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb.
And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God.
He will also go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, 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.
Zacharias said to the angel, "How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is well advanced in years."
And the angel answered and said to him, "I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God, and was sent to speak to you and bring you these glad tidings.
"But behold, you will be mute and not able to speak until the day these things take place, because you did not believe my words which will be fulfilled in their own time.
And the people waited for Zacharias, and marveled that he lingered so long in the temple.
But when he came out, he could not speak to them; and they perceived that he had seen a vision in the temple, for he beckoned to them and retained speechless. So it was, as soon as the days of his service was completed, that he departed to his own house.

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Now after those days his wife Elizabeth conceived; and she hid herself five months, saying,
"Thus the Lord has dealt with me, in the days when He looked on me, to take away my reproach among people."

Upon receiving that announcement from the angel Gabriel, Mary took her journey to visit with Elizabeth.

Verse 39, Luke 1
"Now Mary arose in those days and went into the hill country with haste, to a city of Judah, and entered the house of Zacharias and greeted Elizabeth.

Verse 56
"And Mary remained with her about three months, and returned to her house.
Now Elizabeth's full time came for her to be delivered, and she brought forth a son.
When her neighbors and relatives heard how the Lord had shown great mercy to her, they rejoice with her.

The story of John the Baptist was so clearly part of that of Jesus, that Mary could hardly recall the one without the other. And, besides, Elizabeth, as the angel said, was her kinswoman--perhaps her cousin--to whom she naturally turned in the hour of her maidenly astonishment and rapture. Though much younger, Mary was united to her relative by a close and tender tie, and it was only natural that what had happened to Elizabeth should have impressed her almost as deeply as her own memorable experiences. So it is possible that from the lips of the mother of our Lord we obtain these details of the house of Zacharias.

Think with me for a moment concerning the parentage of the forerunner of Christ. By most Bible scholars, it is agreed that Juttah, a small village, was the home of Zacharias and Elizabeth.

To judge by their names, we may infer that their parents years before had been godly people. Zacharias meant GOD'S REMEMBRANCE: as though he were to be a perpetual reminder to his fellows of what God had promised, and to God of what they were expecting from his hand. ELIZABETH MEANT GOD'S OATH; as though her people were perpetually appealing to those covenant promises in which, since He could swear by no greater, God had sworn by Himself, that He would never leave nor forsake, and that when the scepter departed from Judah and the law-giver from between his feet, Shiloh should come.

Zacharias was a priest, "of the course of Abijah," and twice a year he journeyed to Jerusalem to fulfill his office, for a week of six days and two Sabbaths. There were, Josephus tells us, somewhat more than 20,000 priests settled in Judea at this time; and very many of them were like those whom Malachi denounced as degrading and depreciating the Temple services. The general character of the priesthood was deeply tainted by the corruption of the times, and as a class they were blind leaders of the blind. Not a few, however, were evidently deeply religious men, for we find that "a great number of the priests," after the crucifixion, believed on Christ and joined his followers. In this case we must therefore place Zacharias, who, with his wife, herself of the daughters of Aaron, is described as being "righteous before God."

The phrases are evidently selected with care. Many are righteous before men; but they were righteous before God. Their daily life and walked were regulated by a careful observance of the ordinances of the ceremonial and the commandments of the moral law. It is evident, from the apt and plentiful quotations from Scripture with which the song of Zacharias is replete, that the

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Scriptures were deeply pondered and reverenced in that highland home, and we have the angel's testimony to the prayers that ascended day and night. In all these things they were blameless--not faultless, has judged by God's infinite standard of rectitude, but blameless because they lived up to the fullest limit of their knowledge of the will of God. They were blameless and harmless, the children of God, without blemish, in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom they were seen as lights in the world, holding forth amid neighbors and friends the Word of Truth.
SUCH WAS THE PARENTS AND HOME OF JOHN THE BAPTIST.

There is one very interesting aspect of John's ministry which arrests my attention.

HE WAS ORDAINED TO BE THE CLASP OF TWO COVENANTS. In Him Judaism reached its highest embodiments, and the Old Testament found its noblest exponent. It is significant, therefore, that through his lips the law and the prophets should announce their transitional purpose, and that he who caught up the torch of Hebrew prophecy with a grasp, and spirit unrivalled by any before him, should have it in his power and in his heart to say: "The object of all prophecy, the purpose of the Mosaic law, the end of all sacrifices, the desire of all nations, is at hand." And forthwith turning to the True Shepherd, who stood at the door waiting to be admitted, to Him the porter opened, bowing low as He passed, and crying: "This is He of whom Moses in the law and the prophets did write Jesus of Nazareth, who was for to come."

JESUS....AND JOHN, THE BAPTIST! They were born at the same time; were surrounded from their birth by similar circumstances; drank in from their earliest days the same patriotic aspirations, the same sacred traditions, the same glowing hopes. BUT THE PARALLEL SOON STOPS! John the Baptist is certainly a grand embodiment of the noblest characteristics of the Jewish people. We see in him a conspicuous example of what could be developed out of eight hundred years of Divine revelation and discipline. But Jesus is the Son of Man; there is a width, a breadth, a universality about Him which cannot be accounted for save on the hypothesis which John himself declared, that "He who cometh from above is above all."

The life purpose of the one culminated in his death; with the other, it only began! In the case of John, death was a martyrdom, which shines brilliantly amid the murky darkness of his time; in the case of Jesus, death was a sacrifice which put away the sin of the world. For John there was no immediate resurrection, save that which all good men have of their words and influence; but his Master saw no corruption--it was not possible for Him to be holden by it--and in his resurrection He commenced to wield his wide and mighty supremacy over human hearts and wills.

When the axe of Herod's executioner had done its deadly work in the dungeons of Machaerus, the bond which knit the disciples of John was severed also, and they were absorbed in the followers of Christ; but when the Roman soldiers thought their work was done, and the cry, "It is finished!" had escaped the parched lips of the dying Lord, his disciples held together in the upper room, and continued there for more than forty days, until the descent of the Holy Spirit formed them into the strongest organization that this world has ever beheld!

John, then, was a "burning and shining torch," lifted for a moment aloft in the murky air; but Jesus was that LIGHT!

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THE TESTIMONY OF JOHN THE BAPTIST (John 1:19-36)

There is one important aspect of John's life that we have not considered and that has to do with the conditions surrounding his death.
Matthew gives us that record in chapter 14.
"At that time Herod the tetrarch heard the report about Jesus and said to his servants, "This is John the Baptist; he is risen from the dead, and therefore these powers are at work in him."
For Herod had laid hold of John and bound him, and put him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife.
Because John had said to him, "It is not lawful for you to have her."
And although he wanted to put him to death, he feared the multitude, because they counted him as a prophet. But when Herod's birthday was celebrated, the daughter of Herodias danced before them and pleased Herod. Therefore he promised with an oath to give her whatever she might ask.
So she, having been prompted by her mother, said, "Give me John the Baptist's head here on a platter." And the king was sorry; nevertheless, because of the oaths and because of those who sat with him, he commanded it to be given to her.
So he sent and had John beheaded in prison.
And his head was brought on a platter and given to the girl, and she brought it to her mother.
Then his disciples came and took away the body and buried it, and went and told Jesus."

Matthew 11:1-15
"Now it came to pass, when Jesus finished commanding His 12 disciples, that He departed from there to teach and to preach in their cities.
And when John had heard in prison about the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples and said to Him, "Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?"
Jesus answered and said to them, "Go and tell John the things which you hear and see:
The blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them.
"And blessed is he who is not offended because of Me."
As they departed, Jesus began to say to the multitudes concerning John: "What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind?
"But what did you go out to see? A man clothed in soft garments? Indeed, those who wear soft clothing are in kings' houses.
"But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I say to you, and more than a prophet.
"For this is he of whom it is written: 'Behold, I send My messenger before Your face, Who will prepare Your way before You.'

And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.
"For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John.
"And if you are willing to receive it, he is Elijah who is to come.
He who has ears to hear, let him hear!"

"Remember the Law of Moses, My servant, which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes

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and judgments.

Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.
And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse."

NOW, WE HAVE REVIEWED THE BIRTH AND LIFE, THE MESSAGE AND THE MINISTRY AND DEATH OF JOHN THE BAPTIST... let’s consider his testimony to the world that John is now discussing in the passage before us.

"Now this is the testimony of John when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, "Who are you?" (verse 19)

It is emissaries of the JEWS who come to cross-question John. The word JEWS occurs in this gospel no fewer than seventy times; and always the Jews are the opposition. They are the people who have set themselves against Jesus. The mention of the JEWS brings the opposition thus early upon the stage.

The Fourth Gospel is two things. First, as we have seen, it is the exhibition of God in Jesus Christ. But, second, it is equally this story of the rejection of Jesus Christ by the Jews, the story of God's offer and man's refusal, the story of God's love and man's sin, the story of Jesus Christ's invitation and man's rejection. The Fourth Gospel is the gospel and which love and warning are uniquely and vividly combined.
It is a striking seen!
The rushing river; the tropical gorge; the dense crowds of people standing thick together; the Baptist in his sinewy strength and uncouth attire, surrounded by the little group of disciples; while through the throng a deputation of grey-beards, the representatives of a decadent religion, makes its difficult way--these are the principal features of a memorable incident. There was a profound silence, and men craned their necks and strained their ears to see and hear everything, as the deputation challenged the prophet with the inquiry, "Who art thou?" There was a great silence. Men were prepared to believe anything of the eloquent young preacher. "The people were in expectation, and all men reasoned in their hearts concerning John, whether haply he were the Christ" (Luke 3:15).

If he had given the least encouragement to their dreams and hopes, they would have unfurled again the tattered banner of the Maccabees; and beneath his leadership would have swept, like a wild hurricane, against the Roman occupation, gaining, perhaps, a momentary success, which afterwards would have been wiped out in blood. "And he confessed and denied not; and he confessed, I am not the Christ."

The emissaries of the orthodox could think of three things that john might claim to be.

(1) They asked him if he was the Messiah. The Jews were waiting, and are waiting to this day, for the Messiah. There was no one idea of the Messiah. Some people expected one who would bring peace over all the earth. Some expected one who would bring in the reign of righteousness. Most expected one who would be a great national champion to lead the armies of the Jews as conquerors over all the world. Some expected a supernatural figure straight from God. Still more expected a prince to rise from David's line. Frequently Messianic pretenders arose and caused rebellions. The time of Jesus was an excited age. It was natural to ask John if he claimed to be the Messiah. John complete rejected that claim; but he rejected it with a certain hint. In the Greek the word I is stressed by its position. It is as if John said; "I am not the Messiah, but, if you only knew, the Messiah is here."

(2) They asked him if he was Elijah.
It was the Jewish belief that, before the Messiah came, Elijah would return to herald his coming and to prepare the world to receive him. We have referenced the passage in Malachi concerning this prophecy. Their belief was that Elijah was to come to arrange all disputes. He would settle what things and what people were clean

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and unclean; he would settle who were Jews and who were not Jews; he would bring together again families which were estranged. So much did the Jews believe this that the traditional law said that money and property whose owners were disputed, or anything found whose owner was unknown, must wait "until Elijah comes." It was even believed that Elijah would anoint the Messiah to his kingly office, as all kings were anointed, and that he would raise the dead to share in the new kingdom. John denied that any such honor was his.

(3) They asked him if he was the expected and promised prophet. It was sometimes believed that Isaiah and, especially, Jeremiah would return at the coming of the Messiah. But this is really a reference to the assurance which Moses gave to the people in Deuteronomy 18:15: "The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brethren--him you shall heed." That was a promise that no Jew ever forgot. They waited and longed for the emergence of that prophet who would be the greatest of all prophets, the PROPHET PAR EXCELLENCE. But again John denied that this honor was his.

The deputation was nonplussed. They had exhausted their repertory of questions. Their mission threatened to become abortive, unless they could extract some positive admission. They must put a leading question; and their spokesman, for the fourth time, challenged the strange being, whom they found it so hard to label and place on any shelf of their ecclesiastical museum. "They said therefore unto him, "Who art thou?--that we may give an answer to them that sent us." What sayest thou of thyself?" "He said, "I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness. Make straight the way of the Lord, as said Isaiah the prophet."

This is a quotation from Isaiah 40:3. The idea behind it is this. Eastern roads were not surfaced and metalled. They were mere tracks. When a king was about to visit a province, when a conqueror was about to travel through his domains, the roads were smoothed and straightened out and put in order. What John was saying was: "I am nobody; I am only a voice telling you to get ready for the coming of the King, for He is on the way!"

John was what every true preacher and teacher ought to be--only a voice, a pointer to the King. The last thing that he wanted men to do was to look at him; he wanted them to forget him and see only the King.

Verse 24 and 25 in our text reads:
"Now those who were sent were from the Pharisees.
And they asked him, saying, "Why then do you baptize if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?

To the crowds John may have seemed to fulfill all the essential conditions of the prophetic portraiture of the Messiah; but he stood on the mountain, and knew how infinitely the Christ stood above him. This is apparent in his reply to the final inquiry of the Sanhedrim, "And they asked him, and said unto him, "Why then do you baptize...?" And John said in effect, "I baptize because I was sent to baptize, and I know very well that my work in this respect is temporary and transient; but what matters that? In the midst of you standeth One whom ye know not, even He that cometh after me, the latchet of whose shoe I am not worthy to unloose. The Christ is come. Have not I seen Him, standing amid your crowds, yea, descending these very banks?"

But why should John baptize?

Baptism at the hands of men was not for Israelites at all. It was PROSELYTES, incomers from other faiths, who were baptized. An Israelite was never baptized; he was God's already and did not need to be washed. But GENTILES had to be washed in baptism. John was making Israelites do what only Gentiles had to do. He was suggesting that THE CHOSEN PEOPLE HAD TO BE CLEANSED.

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John, by his baptism, was breaking down the concept that one was a part of God's kingdom as a result of his ancestry or nationality...all come into God's kingdom through faith and trust in Jesus Christ and following the commands of Christ.

AND NOW WE COME TO A GLORIOUS REVELATION...Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God, WHO TAKES AWAY THE SIN OF THE WORLD.

Once again the Fourth Gospel shows us John paying spontaneous tribute to Jesus. He calls him by that tremendous title which has become woven into the very language of devotion-- THE LAMB OF GOD.

(1) HE RIGHTLY CONCEIVED OF CHRIST'S PRE-EXISTENCE.

"He was before me" (John 1:30). The phase resembles Christ's own words, when He said: "Before Abraham was, I am." In John's case it developed soon after into another and kindred expression: "He that cometh from above is above all." With such words the Baptist taught his disciples. He insisted that Jesus of Nazareth had an existence anterior to Nazareth, and previous to his birth of the village maiden. He recognized that his goings had been of old, even from everlasting to everlasting, that He was the mighty

God, the Father of the Ages, and the Prince of Peace.

"Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world."

It may well have been that John was thinking of the Passover Lamb. The Passover Feast was not very far away (John 2:13). The old story of the Passover was that it was the blood of the slain lamb which protected the houses of the Israelites on the night when they left Egypt (Exodus 12:11-13). The blood of the Passover Lamb delivered the Israelites in Egypt from death; and it may be that John was saying: "There is the one true sacrifice who can deliver you from death." Paul too thought of Jesus as the Passover Lamb (1 Cor. 5:7). There is a deliverance that only Jesus Christ can win for us.

There are two great pictures of the lamb in the prophets. Jeremiah writes: "But I was like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter." (Jeremiah 11:19). And Isaiah has the great picture of the one who was brought "like a lamb to the slaughter" (Isaiah 53:7). Both these great prophets had the vision of one who by his sufferings and his sacrifice, meekly and lovingly borne, would redeem his people. Maybe John is saying: "Your prophets dreamed of the one who was to love and suffer and die for the people; that one is come."

From the days of Abel men have brought the firstlings of their flocks, laying them on the altar, and consuming them with fire; but there was always a sense of failure and insufficiency, through the ages, and in every clime, priest after priest offered the lamb upon the altar, but by the very fact of continual repetition, bore witness to the insufficiency of its propitiation. "Every priest, indeed," is the comment of inspiration, "standeth day by day ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, the which can never take away sins." Here was the sacrifice that would end all sacrfices..THIS IS GOD'S LAMB!

(3) JOHN HAD A REVELATION OF THE MEANING OF THE BAPTISM OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. "The same is He that baptizeth with the Holy Spirit. When we place our trust in Jesus Christ, His precious Holy Spirit comes to take up residence with us and we become the temple of the Holy Spirit.

BEHOLD THE LAMB OF GOD! "Now when He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying.

WORTHY IS THE LAMB WHO WAS SLAIN TO RECEIVE POWER AND RICHES AND WISDOM, AND HONOR AND GLORY AND BLESSING!" (Revelation 5)