Page 17 - The Gospel of John - Student textbook

ministry, subsequent to John's baptism of Jesus. While the Lord was in the wilderness being tempted (Matthew
4:1 – 11; Luke 4:1 – 13), John continued his ministry of preaching repentance and baptizing. On three successive
days, to three different groups, he emphasized three truths about Jesus Christ.

First Day, First Group, First Emphasis

19 This is John’s testimony when the Jews from Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask him, “Who are you?”
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20 He did not refuse to answer, but he declared: “I am not the Messiah.” “What then?” they asked him. “Are
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you Elijah?” “I am not,” he said. “Are you the Prophet?” “No,” he answered. “Who are you, then?” they
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asked. “We need to give an answer to those who sent us. What can you tell us about yourself?” He said, “I
am a voice of one crying out in the wilderness: Make straight the way of the Lord —just as Isaiah the prophet
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said.” Now they had been sent from the Pharisees. So they asked him, “Why then do you baptize if you
aren’t the Messiah, or Elijah, or the Prophet?” “I baptize with water,” John answered them. “Someone
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stands among you, but you don’t know [Him]. He is the One coming after me, whose sandal strap I’m not
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worthy to untie.” All this happened in Bethany across the Jordan, where John was baptizing.

John's powerful preaching and widespread
popularity prompted the Jews to send a
delegation to investigate him. Some were
beginning to wonder if he might be the
Messiah (Luke 3:15) which would further
alarm the Jewish authorities. They feared a
popular uprising, which would have been
brutally suppressed by the Romans (John
11:47 – 50) and diminish their power. So, this
strange prophet not only unsettle the Jewish
authorities religiously, but politically as well.

The first question posed to John, "Who are
you?" reflects the Jewish leaders’ confusion
regarding him. The questions they ask in
versus 21 – 22 did not fit into any of their
messianic expectations. They ask, "Are you
Bethany beyond the Jordon Elijah?" The Jews expected Elijah himself to
return in bodily form just before the Messiah
returned to establish His earthly kingdom. (Malachi 3:1 and 4:5) Next they asked, “Are you the prophet?”
(Deuteronomy 18:15 – 18) There was no consensus in first century Judaism about the precise identity of that
prophet. "Who are you, so that we may give an answer to those who sent us?" John's reply was undoubtedly not
what the delegation expected to hear. Rather than claiming to be someone important, he humbly referred to
himself merely as a voice of one crying out in the wilderness.

John was a voice of one crying out in the wilderness

The Pharisees question, "Why then are you baptizing, if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?" was
a further challenge. Since by his own admission John was not one of those figures, what authority did he have to
baptize? John answered them by again directing attention away from himself and onto Christ. Instead of
defending his baptizing ministry, he merely acknowledged its limitations by saying, "I baptize with water." He
then shifted the discussion back to the One to whom he bore witness, declaring "but someone stands among
you, but you do not know Him." Further John did not even consider himself worthy to perform the most menial

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