Page 12 - The Gospel of John - Student textbook

Study Section 3: Testimony to Christ’s Deity

1.1 Connect

John the Baptist was a cousin to Jesus. As they grew up, they never got to know each other. John
grew up about 80 miles south of where Jesus lived (about a 4 or 5-day journey). Who knows,
perhaps they met a couple of times in Jerusalem as Jesus would travel with His parents to observe
the Passover. We really cannot say. But it is obvious that John did not intimately know Jesus until
Jesus came to him to be baptized.

John was the forerunner of Christ. He prepared the way for Jesus’s presentation as Messiah. And when he
finally got to see him, he called out, “Behold, the lamb of God, who will take away the sins of the world.” John
the Baptist fully understood why Jesus would come to earth – to be the atoning sacrifice for every man’s sin.
The book of John begins with telling us about John the Baptist’s encounter with Christ. Let’s dig in….

1.2 Objectives

1. The student should be able to define what John the Baptist’s mission was on earth.

2. The student should be able to explain the full impact of the incarnation of Christ as completely and
fully human.

3. The student should be able to recite what happened on the three days of John’s witness to those who came
to meet him from Jerusalem.

1.3 Responding to the Incarnate Word

John 1:6 – 13

Having established the deity of Jesus Christ in the opening five verses, John now turns to the only two possible
responses to that reality: unbelief or belief. Before describing those responses, John described the one who
came to testify of Jesus so that people might believe in Him.

John described the one who came to testify of Jesus so that people might

believe in Him

John the Baptist: Believable Testimony

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6 There was a man named John who was sent from God. He came as a witness to testify
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about the light, so that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but he came to
testify about the light.

John's mission was not to exalt himself, but to be a witness about the Messiah, and to testify
about the light. He is the first of eight witnesses that appear in John's gospel. The legal terms

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