“The next day he saw Jesus coming to him [John the Baptist] and said, “Behold,
the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! This is He on behalf of
whom I said, ‘After me comes a Man who has a higher rank than I, for He existed
before me.’ I did not recognize Him, but so that He might be manifested to
Israel, I came baptizing in water.” John testified saying, “I have seen the
Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven, and He remained upon Him. I did not
recognize Him, but He who sent me to baptize in water said to me, ‘He upon whom
you see the Spirit descending and remaining upon Him, this is the One who
baptizes in the Holy Spirit.’ I myself have seen, and have testified that this
is the Son of God.”” (John 1:29–34, NASB95)
John had established before his questioners that he was not
the Christ, Elijah, or the Prophet. He told them that he was a man sent by God
to proclaim the coming of the Lord. And then the very next day John was shown the
One for whom he was sent to make the way. He identified Him as the “Lamb of God
who takes away the sin of the world!” Here before them was indeed the Christ, and
John knew that Jesus was eternally God—existing before John as fully God with
the Father and Holy Spirit. He also knew that Jesus was God’s special sacrifice
sent to once and for all pay the price for man’s sins. This was not to be a
universal salvation in that every single man becomes saved, but a salvation freely
given to those who believe and who call upon Jesus for that salvation. When
Jesus shed His blood it was fully adequate to accomplish this for all of man in
general, but was only to be appropriated to those who believe.
John was able to identify Jesus not because of a special
glow or anything remarkable about Him as a man, but because John saw the third person
of the Trinity—the Spirit descending on Jesus as a dove out of heaven. John
testified to this fact. He had seen the Spirit descend on Jesus identifying Him
truly as Son of God. As I reflect on these verses recording the beginning of Jesus’
public ministry we find at His baptism the fullness of God represented. The Son
had come, sent and identified by the Father, and marked and empowered by the
Holy Spirit. And as we talked about in the last post, even when we baptize
believers today, we mark this special transformation in our lives (the
forgiveness of sin and the newness of life) with our public baptism in the name
of our One God manifest in three persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Matthew, Mark, and Luke also wrote about this special
beginning, and from them we get some details that John [the apostle] did not provide. Matthew
wrote that “Then Jesus arrived from Galilee at the Jordan coming to John, to be
baptized by him. But John tried to prevent Him, saying, “I have need to be
baptized by You, and do You come to me?” But Jesus answering said to him,
“Permit it at this time; for in this way it is fitting for us to fulfill all
righteousness.” Then he permitted Him.” (Matthew 3:13–15, NASB95) John recognized
just how short he had come in relation to God’s perfect standard of holiness
and in relation to the perfect nature of the Son of God. As such John tried to
turn the table and have Jesus, who did not need to repent, baptize John
instead. But Jesus stopped Him and told John that it was necessary for Him
(Jesus) to be baptized “to fulfill all righteousness.” Though Jesus had no
unrighteousness in Himself He had come to take on Himself the unrighteousness
of man, and in His baptism He was identifying Himself with this very purpose.
Jesus had come to offer up Himself in death by His shed blood as the sacrifice
for man’s sin, and he had come to demonstrate His power over that death by
being resurrected to life demonstrating His power to give life back to man.
This is what happens when the Spirit makes us a new creation at the moment of
our salvation, and it is what is testified to when we follow ourselves in
public water baptism. God intended that Jesus start His public work with the
same act that we are commanded to do after we place our trust in Jesus for our
salvation and identify ourselves with Him forever.
So, John consented to baptize Jesus. “After being baptized,
Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened,
and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and lighting on Him,”
(Matthew 3:16, NASB95) Luke added that after His baptism that as Jesus was praying
to the Father, the Father spoke and the Spirit came. “Now when all the people were
baptized, Jesus was also baptized, and while He was praying, heaven was opened,
and the Holy Spirit descended upon Him in bodily form like a dove, and a voice
came out of heaven, “You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased.”” (Luke
3:21–22, NASB95)
From that moment forward the gospels switch their focus.
John was sent to point the way, and now the Way had come. Later in John chapter
3 we again find John continuing to testify of Christ. But in this passage there
is an ominous clue of things that were to come for John. In this passage we
read that he had not yet been imprisoned, as we read eventually happened to him
in Matthew 4:12. And as we proceed through the gospels we find that John
remained imprisoned, and while there he heard the stories of what Jesus had been
doing. In Matthew chapter 11 John sends his disciples to affirm that Jesus was
indeed the “Expected One” in the off chance that maybe he had made a mistake
and was sitting in prison for nothing. “Now when John, while imprisoned, heard
of the works of Christ, he sent word by his disciples and said to Him, “Are You
the Expected One, or shall we look for someone else?”” (Matthew 11:2–3, NASB95)
Jesus gave John the answer He wanted to hear. “Jesus answered and said to them,
“Go and report to John what you hear and see: the blind receive sight 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 does not take
offense at Me.”” (Matthew 11:4–6, NASB95)
After John’s disciples had returned to give him Jesus’
response, Jesus began to speak to the crowds. While speaking Jesus affirmed
John saying, “Truly I say to you, among those born of women there has not
arisen anyone greater than John the Baptist! Yet the one who is least in the
kingdom of heaven is greater than he. From the days of John the Baptist until
now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and violent men take it by force. For
all the prophets and the Law prophesied until John. And if you are willing to
accept it, John himself is Elijah who was to come. He who has ears to hear, let
him hear.” (Matthew 11:11–15, NASB95) Surely Jesus was not saying that John was
Elijah, but He was saying that John had come to fulfill the promises of the
Elijah prophecies. As the angel said to John’s father, “For he will be great in
the sight of the Lord; and he will drink no wine or liquor, and he will be
filled with the Holy Spirit while yet in his mother’s womb. And he will turn
many of the sons of Israel back to the Lord their God. It is he who will go as
a forerunner before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers back to the
children, and the disobedient to the attitude of the righteous, so as to
make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” (Luke 1:15–17, NASB95)
John had fulfilled the purpose for which he was sent, and as
he sat in prison he had this confirmed by our Lord. John had not made a
mistake. And knowing this he was eventually beheaded. Mark chapter 6 records
for us that on Herod’s birthday Herod had John beheaded and his head delivered
to Herod’s daughter on a platter as thank you behest at the urging of her
mother in gratitude for her dancing to please her father. Once this was
accomplished the daughter gave John’s head to her mother Herodia, and Jesus
apostles were permitted to take John’s body which they then laid in a tomb. Following
this they reported back to Jesus what had happened. “And He [Jesus] said to
them, “Come away by yourselves to a secluded place and rest a while.”” (Mark
6:31a, NASB95)
John had come to proclaim the message of repentance and
salvation, and in the end he died with the assurance and the eternal
realization of just how true his words had been. The Lamb had given salvation,
and He continues to do so today. John may have lost his head to gain eternity,
but many, many more have held onto their heads and lost their lives.
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten
Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”
(John 3:16, NASB95)
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