The Forefunner of Christ

Read John 1:19-34

Let's set up the story here.

Character One: John the Baptist was Jesus' cousin and was born six months before Christ. As an adult, he preached about 30 miles from Jerusalem in the wilderness of Judea. John had two purposes in preaching. First of all was to bear witness of Christ (verse 15) and second, was to reveal "the record" about Christ (verse 19).

John had an unusual way of living. We know from Mark 1:5-7 that he dressed in camel's hair and wore a leather belt around his waist.He also had an unusual diet of locusts and wild honey. Yummy, right? We also see that John was very humble. Even as the Jewish leaders confront him, he doesn't make great claims for himself or try to draw honor and glory for himself.

Character(s) Two: When the word Jews is used in the Gospels, it is generally meant to refer to the Jewish religious authorities.

There are two different types of Jewish authorities that we are going to focus on here.

 The first is the Levites. They were of Jewish descent, most specifically from the tribe of Levi (one of Jacob's twelve sons). They were God's chosen servants and were called specifically by God to serve as his priests and/or workers in the temple. However, by the time of Christ, they were not the devoted followers of God that you would imagine a called servant of the Lord would be. By the time of Christ they had become calloused, cold-hearted, and self-righteous. They were obsessed with tradition (think "Fiddler on the Roof") and were no longer following God out of devotion, but out of duty and routine.

The second group of Jewish authorities that we will focus on are the Pharisees. The Pharisees were a group of men who emerged during the four hundred "silent years" before Christ's birth (between Malachi in the Old Testament and Matthew in the New Testament). These men believed that because Israel did not follow God's law, this was the reason why they were taken into captive in the Old Testament times. So, they believed that to return to the true nation of Israel, they needed to bring Israel back to God by strictly following the Old Testament Laws. Was it such a bad idea that they had? What are some examples that you can think of that can be used to illustrate the Pharisees and Levites as described here?

                                                         

Now, in this passage, the Jewish leaders approach John with five questions to figure out just what this crazy man was doing and preaching to their people. What are these five questions and how does John answer them? Why do you think they came asking John these questions.

Let's look a little more closely at the Spiritual Condition of the Jewish Leaders. They are suffering from three different spiritual "ailments". The first one is Spiritual Ignorance. Isaiah 40 gives a complete prophecy of John the Baptist. In fact, it is almost verbatim in its description of John. So, the Jews should have known and recognized John as the prophesied forerunner. However, they still come and ask him "who are you," hinting at the fact that they don't recognize him even there.

They also suffer from Spiritual Pride. They come to question him because they are afraid of the power that John might have and the fact that he might steal their job. It's almost like they're saying, "who do you think you are to tell men to repent? You aren't one of us!!!! You don't have the right religious education and training, like us!" So the question becomes, did John have the right to baptize? Why? Well, John stands his ground under their pressure and confesses, first who he was, and second, he didn't deny who he was or what he was doing. He knew that he was called by God and in the right.

Lastly, the Jews are suffering from Spiritual Confusion. After questioning him and hearing his answer, they still ask him if he was Elijah ('that prophet").  Now the reason they ask him this is because at this point in time, the Jews believed that Elijah, who if you recall, had not dies but had been lifted up to heaven in a whirlwind (1 Kings), would come back to earth. So, they were thinking he was truly Elijah. As an interesting note, we see that the disciples weren't confused in Matthew 16:13-14. They knew exactly who the true Christ was, and they didn't have the educational background!

Enough about the Jewish Leaders. Let's look at what John does to place Christ in the spotlight despite the blindness of the Jewish Leaders. First of all, John calls himself a voice. This is very significant. If you remember in the beginning of John 1, Christ is called the Word. Think of it this way:

1. The Word exists in the mind before the voice utters it--Christ, the Word, had existed before John, the voice, came to announce Him.



2. A voice is heard, not seen. In other words, as we see in this passage, John didn't put himself in the spotlight, but continued to point to Christ.

3. The Word remains after the voice is silent. Even after John was silenced, Christ remains.

OK, continuing with what John did to place Christ in the spotlight. The second way is that he exalted Christ. Verse 25-27 move the spotlight from John to Christ. John even goes so far as to say he is not worthy enough to untie Christ's sandals. Why would this be a significant statement?

We see on the next day in Bethabara, or "Bethany beyond Jordan," that John continues to exalt Christ and place him in the spotlight as the Lamb of God. This is when Christ's baptism takes place. It occurs the day after the Jewish leaders had publicly questioned John. In fact, we see in verse 30, that John refers to the questions of the day before and then reveals that Christ was the very man they were looking for. However, they weren't really looking for Jesus as we know him. They were looking for a prophet, Elijah, a king. They didn't want the spiritual Savior that Christ represented. And this sets us up for the constant battle between Christ and the Jewish leaders as they reject him and all that he represents.

So, the question becomes, who do you line up with most in this story? Who can you identify with the most?

If you line up with John, what are you doing to exalt Christ and put him in the spotlight?

If you line up with the Jews, which Spiritual Condition are you struggling with the most? What can you do to escape Spiritual Ignorance, Pride, and/or Confusion? How can you help others who are struggling with these?

 

Christ's Incarnation: Wrap Up

OK, let's wrap this puppy up!

We've talked about Christ's incarnation and what is means, we've talked about Christ's glory. Let's talk about the purpose of Christ's incarnation. There are three parts to this. Christ's incarnation is meant to reveal the nature of God, the grace of God, and the truth of God.

God's Nature (John 1:18)

We've already talked about this, but until the incarnation of Christ, men had never seen God in the flesh. They had seen many aspects of God, such as the theophanies of the Old Testament, the handiwork of God in creation (Romans 1:20), and they had read about Him in the Old Testament. But now, God wants us to know Him personally! We're able to have a relationship with Him now that we had never been able to have before!!!! In this verse (18), John says that Jesus has made Him known. The verb used here means "revealed", "interpreted", or "made known." This gives us a clue as to why John calls Christ "the Word." Think about it: through words, we make our feelings known. In the same way God makes his feelings about us known to us through His Word (check out Hebrews 1:1-2).


God's Grace (John 1:14, 16-17)

In the Old Testament, man experienced God's Law and Justice. However, God was gracious still. What are some ways that we know of that God was gracious to man in the Old Testament? So, how does the incarnation reveal Christ's grace? Well, God didn't have to send Jesus to begin with. We most certainly did not deserve it. In fact, man did not even want God's love and grace! Yet, despite our rejection of Him, God still sent His son. And this is how the incarnation reveals Christ's grace.

God's Truth (John 1:14)

What's another way to think of God's truth? Maybe this will help. God loves us, but His truthfulness will not let Him overlook our sin. Sin has to be punished. So, Christ came to be punished for us. Christ's agony on the cross reveals not only the grace and truth of God, but also these three things:

1. The awful consequences of sin

2. God's hatred of sin

3. The consequences that we must pay if we refuse His substitute

So, wrapping up John 1 (and I promise we will move quicker through the other chapters), we see both the importance of Christ's preexistence to prove Christ's deity, but also the need for Christ's preexistence to help us see and personally experience God. So, why do you think John packed this much into John 1?

The Incarnation: Christ's Doxa

Take a look at John 1:14 again to refresh your memory.

We wrapped up last time with talking about the parallels between Christ and the tabernacle. The last one talked about how the tabernacle was the center of Israel's camp and how Christ should be the center of our lives. Continuing that thought process, if Christ is the center of our lives, we should see His glory, just like Israel saw the Lord's glory resting on the tabernacle. The Greek word used here for glory is the word "doxa." This word means literally "to seem." This is referring to the lofty reputation that a person has in another person's eyes. So, in this case, a man's glory is his reputation.

OK, so if glory here means reputation, then how can we "behold Christ's reputation"? Isn't that something internal? What does this mean????

Well, glory in this context means more than a person's reputation. It means that when we behold Christ, we are basically viewing God's reputation...in other words those attributes that God alone possesses and can reveal. So, in the midst of discussing Christ's incarnation, John still takes the time to make another reference to Christ's deity. Almost like he is saying, "Christ is a man, but wait, don't forget he's God too!!!"

Let's take a second and look at these attributes and how Christ is the only one as fully man to live up to these attributes. If you recall from Christianity 101, sin is our failing to measure up to Christ's perfection. In other words, God is holy and anything that we do that is unholy, we are sinning.

God is omnipresent (or everywhere at once) and whenever we try to hide from Him, we are sinning. God is omnipotent (or all powerful) and whenever we fail to trust Him, we sin. God is merciful and whenever we are unforgiving or seek revenge on others, we sin. God is patient and whenever we are impatient, we sin. God is sovereign and whenever we try to run our own lives, we sin.

WHEW!!!! Talk about conviction! We see how we fail to measure up to God in this idea of God's glory being His reputation and we see how desperately we need a Savior. Which is why (I think just from looking at this test with fresh eyes) John takes the time to reference not only Christ's deity, but the fact that He was fully man so that we would know that we are not walking this human life alone. We have an advocate whose reputation (His doxa) is flawless and can represent us to His Father. What wonderful peace we can find in this!!!!

To wrap up this week, look at Ephesians 1: 6 and 12. Look at what "we are saved to the praise of." Kind of changes the perspective in light of Christ's doxa, doesn't it.

Questions to ponder:
1. Which of the above attributes of God convicts you the most? Why?
2. What does this idea of Christ's glory/reputation mean to you?