John 1:19-34 - This is God's Chosen One
Sermon by Pastor Brent Kompelien
September 11, 2022
INTRO (SLIDE 1)
We are continuing our series in the Gospel of John called “Full of Grace and Truth.”
If you missed last week, we began by asking this question, “Who is Jesus?”
John’s gospel starts with this magnificent description of who Jesus is as the “Word made flesh,” God again declaring, “Let there be light,” and then God himself coming to dwell among us in order to save us and make a new creation.
Well, this morning we are going to wind back the clock a bit. When we read John’s gospel, we already know the end of the story. But one of the exercises we are going to do as we study this book is to imagine what it would have been like to encounter “Jesus in real time.”
Our passage this morning in John 1:19-34 places us in a moment in real time. You see, John began chapter 1 by giving a rich theological description of Jesus. But now we enter 30 A.D. when John the Baptist announces the coming of the Messiah and we encounter the first moments of the story of who Jesus is.
In order to understand this moment in time, we need to know the background of what came before. There is a prequel to all of the gospels and a prequel to Jesus’ life and ministry, and this prequel is called the Old Testament.
ILLUST — There has been a renaissance of prequels in the film industry recently. There have been prequels to Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, 101 Dalmatians, The Wizard of Oz, and Monsters, Inc. I read an article recently that tried to understand why our culture is to enamored with prequels and origin stories.
You see, we live in a world that is increasingly complex, fast-paced, and demanding, but where relationships are increasingly superficial and lacking in richness. Relationships are bite-sized, often only a text or a comment or a thumbs up. People are thirsty for something deeper, something richer, someone to know, and some place to be known.
Prequels offer a comfort, like reading a well-worn bedtime story. They offer something known and familiar, like hearing a story of the black-and-white days when your grandparents were young.
You see, in a prequel you usually already know the main characters and you know the end of the story. But diving deeper into the past allows us to focus not just on the what of a story, but also on the why.
It is the why that reveals the deeper connection, the richer relationship, and the more intimate understanding of someone you love.
This is what John is going to do in our passage today. He is going to draw us back to the prequel, to the “before-times” that bring about something richer in our understanding of who Jesus is.
PROP — Here’s what he wants us to see: All the promises to the prophets are coming true, so get ready!
Open with me to John 1:19-34. In this passage, we are going to meet John the Baptist (not the Apostle John!) and see what it was like in this moment in time when John the Baptist recalled the promises of the prophets who said that a Messiah would come to purify God’s people and to lead the ultimate return from exile. READ John 1:19-34.
ORG SENT — There are two events here that are tied together, one day after another. First, John the Baptist comes on the scene to prepare the way for the Messiah (vv. 19-28). Second, John the Baptist then declares that Jesus is the fulfillment of the promises spoken by the prophets (vv. 29-34). So, two parts: John the Baptist, and then Jesus the Messiah.
MAIN 1 — John the Baptist (vv. 19-28). (SLIDE 2a)
Before we dig into this conversation between John the Baptist and the Jewish leaders, we need to rewind back to the prequel. We need to go way back to beginning of the Bible to understand the flow of what is happening here. There is a theme of water in the Bible as a symbol of purifying God’s people. (SLIDE 2b)
(SLIDE 2c) If you go all the way back to the story of Noah and the flood, where the whole world is rebellious and full of sin. The waters wash over the earth to cleanse it from evil as God then makes a covenant promise in the very next chapters of Genesis to redeem a people through Abraham.
(SLIDE 2d) Then you can go to the Exodus from Egypt, where the Israelites pass through water at the Red Sea, literally leaving the evil of Egypt behind them as the Egyptian army is swept away and God’s people are propelled toward Mt. Sinai to receive God’s good law.
(SLIDE 2e) And as the Israelites cross the Jordan River, the presence of God goes ahead of them in the Ark of the Covenant, starting a new chapter in the inheritance of the Promised Land after the rebellion of the wilderness generation comes to an end.
KEY: In each of these instances, there is a symbolic connection between water and the washing away of sin and evil. It is an act of preparation for something. Specifically in the Old Testament stories, (SLIDE 2f) it is an act of God’s purifying grace to prepare for the promise of redemption, the giving of the law, and the receiving of the inheritance.
This is the kind of baptism that we see from John the Baptist. It is a baptism of preparation, but in a grander and more perfect sense, because it is a calling to get ready to receive the Messiah, who is the ultimate keeper of the promise of redemption, the ultimate fulfillment of the law, and the ultimate giver of the inheritance of the new heavens and new earth.
We see this theme of preparation for the Messiah come out strongly in John’s own words in response to the Jewish leaders. So, let’s look at the text now to see John’s response when the Jewish leaders question him. (SLIDE 3a) READ vv. 21-23.
He quoted from Isaiah 40. (SLIDE 3b) Yes, Isaiah! My favorite book!
You need to know something important about the book of Isaiah: Chapter 40 is the pivot-point of the whole book. The first half is all about the failures of Israel and the resulting exile to Assyria and Babylon. But the second half of the book from chapters 40-66 announces good news to God’s people: There will come a Messiah, the Suffering Servant who will lead the people back from exile and establish them forever in a permanent new heavens and new earth.
But before the dawning of the Messiah, God’s chosen one, there will be a messenger who goes ahead to prepare the way. (SLIDE 3c) This is John the Baptist!
And John’s ministry of preparation is all about repentance and the forgiveness of sins. He baptizes with water, the central Old Testament symbol for cleansing from sin and evil, in order to symbolize preparing for the advent of the Messiah.
KEY — John’s baptism fulfills the promises of Isaiah and inaugurates a new reality: The Messiah is here! (SLIDE 3d) It is a forward-looking baptism, pointing ahead to what the Savior will do in us.
As John says in verse 26, “…among you stands one you do not know. He is the one who comes after me, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.”
MAIN 2 — Jesus the Messiah (vv. 29-34). (SLIDE 4a)
Here is the first look at the coming of Jesus in real time. Remember, one of the exercises we are going to do as we study this book is to imagine what it would have been like to encounter “Jesus in real time.”
Verse 29 tells us that it was the next day after the Jewish leaders had come to question John the Baptist. Listen again to what John says about Jesus. (SLIDE 4b) READ vv. 29-31.
Here is more from the prequel of Isaiah. (SLIDE 4c) Jesus is called “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” (SLIDE 4d) Isaiah 53:4-7 says, “Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.”
Wow! Isaiah foretold this, but no one expected it! Everyone thought that the Messiah would be a military conquerer or a political leader. No one expected the Messiah to humbly give up his life like a sacrificial lamb. Yet, this is why John the Baptist came baptizing with water, to reveal the need for forgiveness through a Suffering Messiah.
You see, we need to grasp something earth-shatteringly important here: (SLIDE 4e) Jesus came to inaugurate a new age. It is what the Bible calls “the age to come.” We live in the “present evil age,” but the dawning of Jesus brings about the beginning of a new era, the start of a new creation, the establishment of a new kingdom.
Remember, John’s baptism pointed ahead; it was a preparation for something to come. It pointed ahead to the work the Savior will do in us.
Now, listen to the way John the Baptist describes this new era. (SLIDE 4f) READ vv. 32-34
This phrase “God’s Chose One” is a quote from Isaiah 42. It means that Jesus is the anointed Son of God, the Suffering Servant, the one who will bring about the perfect redemption of all things.
Did you notice how John describes the difference between himself and Jesus?
John knew his water baptism was simply pointing ahead to someone greater.
But Jesus will baptize with the Holy Spirit. (SLIDE 4g) What does John mean?
ILLUST — Now, the word “baptize” was actually was a common secular word in the ancient world that meant to “plunge” or “immerse” or “dip” (SLIDE 4h). It was used of washing clothes where you plunge the clothes into a basin of water. It is also the word used when Judas dipped his bread in the bowl at the Last Supper.
So, John is using the word “baptize” figuratively to describe how Jesus will immerse his people in his own presence through the Spirit of God.
This is a game-changing reality, and it gives us a picture of the good news: (SLIDE 5a) The gospel is about the gift of forgiveness and the gift of God’s presence.
It is only the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world who can forgive sins. And it is only God’s Chosen One who can bath you in his presence forevermore.
KEY: When the New Testament church begins practicing baptism after Jesus’ death and resurrection, it was always done after people had heard the gospel and confessed that Jesus is their Lord and Savior.
(SLIDE 5b) Baptism is now a symbol that points back to a finished reality: that a person has died to sin and received a new spiritual life by the grace of God.
Because Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection have inaugurated a new era, baptism for us today makes it clear that we belong to the “age to come” because we have died and been raised with Christ. (SLIDE 5c) It is a backward-looking baptism, pointing back to what the Savior has done in us. And it anticipates our resurrection at the last day when we will be in the new creation forevermore.
APPLY
Today we are going to celebrate God’s saving work in a few of our brothers and sisters. We are going to the gospel symbolized, as the waters cover over like a tomb and then they are raised up like a resurrection. (SLIDE 6, blank)
We are also going to hear some testimonies. Thinking about the stories that will be told makes me think of a testimony from the theologian J.C. Ryle. Looking back on the first time he heard the gospel Ryle wrote, “Nothing I can remember to this day appeared to me so clear and distinct as my own sinfulness, Christ's preciousness, the value of the Bible, the absolute necessity of coming out of the world, [and] the need of being born again…All these things seemed to flash upon me like a sunbeam, in the winter of 1837, and have stuck in my mind from that time down to this…[This is] what the Bible calls regeneration. Before that time, I was dead in sins, and on the high road to hell. From that time, I had become alive, and have had a hope of heaven, and nothing to my mind can account for it but the free sovereign grace of God.”