The Work of John the Baptist (John 1:24-28)

Topic: The Work of John the Baptist

Reading: John 1:24-28

24 Now they had been sent from the Pharisees. 25 They asked him, “Then why are you baptizing, if you are neither the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?” 26 John answered them, “I baptize with water; but among you stands one whom you do not know, 27 even he who comes after me, the thong of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.” 28 This took place in Bethany beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing.

Introduction and Overview

This post is a continuation of the previous post. Last time we looked at who John the Baptist was. In this post we look at the work of John the Baptist. I will also look at why he was called “Elijah who is to come” to gain some insight into the fulfilment of the prophecies concerning John the Baptist.

There were a number of prophecies in the Old Testament that pointed to the coming of, and the work of John the Baptist. He was identified as the one who was “Elijah who is to come.” (Matthew 11:14) He was the one to fulfil the prophecy about a messenger sent to prepare the way (Matthew 11:10) before the coming of Christ. He was the one hat Isaiah prophesied would “make straight the way of the Lord” (John 1:23) before Christ appeared. And he was the one to come “in the spirit and power of Elijah.” (Luke 1:17)

When we consider the reference to Elijah, we need to look at the work of Elijah to understand what he did, and compare that to the work of John the Baptist. They are very similar in many ways.

Elijah was the prophet sent to Israel to bring the people back to worship God. Most of Israel had turned away from God and were worshipping the Baals. But Elijah was sent by the Lord to show them the error of their ways and to return them to worshipping God.

The most notable and remembered example of this was when Elijah challenged the priests of Baal. They would build an altar and Elijah built an altar on which each would lay a sacrifice to their respective Gods, but they were not permitted to set fire to the sacrifices. They had to call to their gods to send down fire to light the sacrificial fire. And despite calling to Baal, cutting themselves, crying, dancing, shouting and other carry-on for most of the day, nothing happened.

Then Elijah called for the people to come to him, he doused the altar to the Lord in copious amounts of water, and he prayed to God to prove that He was the one true God by sending down a flame to light and burn the sacrifice and the altar. And God did that and defeated the Baals and turned the hearts f the people back to the Lord. If you are not familiar with this account, you can read it in 1 Kings 18:20-40.

Just as Elijah was called to turn the people back to the Lord, so to the work of John the Baptist was to turn the people back to God. The work of John the Baptist, like Elijah, was to restore truthful worship and repentance to the people of Israel. And in the case of the work of John the Baptist, it was to ready the people for the coming of the Messiah, the Christ, who would initiate and introduce a New Covenant for all the peoples of the world to come into the presence of the Lord.

Key points from reading:

• The work of John the Baptist was to prepare the people for the coming of Christ Jesus
• John baptised the people in water for the purpose of repentance.
• John understood that his role was to prepare the way of the Lord, and he recognised that the Lord was vastly greater than he.

Discussion:

1. Scripture: John 1:24-25 – The Work of John the Baptist to Baptise
   • The people who were sent to question John the Baptist were from the Pharisees. They wanted to know who he was and what he was doing. John the Baptist had confessed that he was not the Christ, so they wanted to know why he was baptising people. They did not understand the work of John the Baptist that he had been commissioned to do from God.
   • Baptism in itself would not have been completely alien or foreign to the people in those times. In the law and in the oral traditions of the people of Israel there were ritual cleansings that took place. And the word “baptise,” which is essentially an untranslated Greek word, means to dunk or dip and wash with water.
   • But the nature of the baptism that was the work of John the Baptist was different. It was not a cleansing for the removal of dirt from the body. It was something deeper and more symbolic.
2. Scripture: John 1:26 – John announces Christ’s Coming
   • John stated in this verse that he baptised the people in water. He preached to the people for the need for repentance, and then the people went down into the river to be baptised by him for repentance.
   • As noted already, part of the work of John the Baptist was to turn the hearts of the people back to God. And this is the basic meaning of repentance. The actual Greek word translated as “repentance” is “metanoia.” It is a compound word made up of two parts. “Meta” means to change, and “noia” refers to the mind. So, repentance is to “change your mind” or better yet, to “change your thinking.” The purpose of repentance is to change from focusing your thoughts on the things of this world that lead to sin, and instead to focus on the things of the Spirit that lead to life.
   • By doing this, the people were being prepared for the coming of Christ, who would take this even further. They were being prepared by turning away from sin, and turning towards God. Repentance seeks an about face, or a one hundred and eighty degree turnabout in the way a person thinks. The things of the world and the things of the Spirit are polar opposites. So, to turn from one to the other requires a complete about-face, and this was the work of John the Baptist through his preaching, teaching, and the physical baptisms in water.
   • But we also see in this verse that John is announcing the presence of the Christ. He states that the Christ is about to be revealed, saying that He is already among the people. Jesus had not yet been revealed, but He was about to step forward.
3. Scripture: John 1:27-28 – The Supremacy of Christ
   • All of this was taking place at and near the river Jordan, in the vicinity of Bethany. Bethany was a town near Olivet or the Mount of Olives, and was just a short distance out of Jerusalem. Indeed it is referenced in several places as being a Sabbath Day’s journey from Jerusalem. Under the Ten Commandments, the Jews were to rest on the Sabbath, and so they could not travel far by foot on that day. The distance is not specified in scripture, but the traditions of the Jews, which it appears Jesus followed in this case, was a distance of 2,000 cubits, or 3,000 feet, which is roughly 0.6 of a mile. So, Bethany was very close to the wall and outskirts of Jerusalem.
   • Now, in this scripture we see that John the Baptist, who the people considered to be a prophet, showed how important the one who would come after himself would be. John the Baptist made the point that when the Christ was revealed, John did not count himself worthy to even untie the thong of the sandal of Christ.
   • At that time, the washing of feet was a common practice. They did not have garbage collect or sewerage, there were animals roaming the streets, and the streets themselves were dusty and dirty. So, people would wash their feet after being out and about because their feet quickly became filthy. Jesus Himself, in a display of humility and servitude, washed the feet of is disciples to show an example of humility and service that they were to adopt. (See: John 13:3-17) Washing of feet in a great house in those days was the lowliest and most demeaning task. It was done by the lowest of the servants in a house.
   • John the Baptist knew who the Christ was. He knew that the Christ was the Son of God and the Creator of the universe. He knew that the Christ was the one who would bring salvation to mankind and the removal of sin, as we will cover in the next post. And for that reason, John the Baptist recognised the supremacy of the Christ. This is why John said that he was not even worthy to untie the thongs of the sandal, let alone touch or wash the feet of the Christ. He did not consider himself even to take the role of the lowest of servants in relation to the power and position of the Christ.
   • This is a lesson for us all. Jesus said of John the Baptist, “Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has risen no one greater than John the Baptist.” And yet John did not think of himself as anyone great. He was a humble man. Yes he was a powerful teacher and preacher. yes, he was the one sent by God to prepare the way for the Lord. But he was a humble man and showed no arrogance or pride in all he did. He came to do a work for the Lord and he did it without fear or favour and in an attitude of humility before the Lord. And there is one more important role that John the Baptist played, which will be covered in the next post.

Prayer Points:

• Pray and seek understanding in all of these things, especially that you can hold a repentant heart and walk in the same humility that epitomised the life and work of John the Baptist.