John 1: 19-28

(John 1: 19-28)

And this is the record of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, Who art thou?  And he confessed, and denied not; but confessed, I am not the Christ.  And they asked him, What then? Art thou Elias? And he saith, I am not. Art thou that prophet? And he answered, No.  Then said they unto him, Who art thou? that we may give an answer to them that sent us. What sayest thou of thyself?  He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Esaias.  And they which were sent were of the Pharisees.  And they asked him, and said unto him, Why baptizest thou then, if thou be not that Christ, nor Elias, neither that prophet?  John answered them, saying, I baptize with water: but there standeth one among you, whom ye know not;  He it is, who coming after me is preferred before me, whose shoe's latchet I am not worthy to unloose.  These things were done in Bethabara beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing.

John the Baptist testified that Matthew 3:6 had come to him from Jerusalem, all Judea, and the Jordan River. However, John the Baptist knew who he was and what to do. He was called to prepare and testify for the coming of Jesus and lived by that call. The Bible records a scene where people send priests and Levites to John the Baptist, wondering if this man is the Christ that God will send.

And they ask, "Who are you?" Are you the Christ to come, the Old Testament? John answered the question clearly, "I am not the Christ." They asked again. Are you Elijah? Or are you the prophet? John clearly replied "no" to both questions. They ask, frustrated. Then, "What do you say about you?" Then John the Baptist replied. “And he said, “I am the voice of a man crying in the wilderness to make the way of the Lord straight, as the prophet Isaiah said.”

The voice of one crying in the wilderness to straighten the way of the Lord, to prepare the way of the Lord, this was the answer to his own identity as he spoke of. He previously knew that the role of preparing the way for Jesus was his job. He was not a light, but a witness of that light, and he knew that he was on earth, not to receive attention, but to give that attention to the Son of God.

People see him proclaiming the impending kingdom of God and true repentance, and people have misunderstood him as Christ. His simple and intact life in the wilderness and his vested interests were in contrast with the luxurious, luxurious, and material-loving religious leaders of his day. He calls for sincere repentance and true conversion, and he does so only in words, but his life is urged to bear fruit worthy of repentance to those who are far from him, and even to severely reprove the immoral and corrupt appearance of Herod Antibas, the powerful man at the time.

Then, people tried to confuse the light and the witness of the light, the coming who spoke in the Old Testament, and the one who prepared the way. People flocked to John the Baptist and tried to follow him. However, he broke the misunderstanding and testified of Christ Jesus to the people, while confessing his smallness, weakness, and ineligibility. He testified that the One who will come behind him is so great that he could not afford even to untie the shoelaces of Jesus, which was the lowest and lowest servant at the time.

When Jesus came to him, John the Baptist confessed, ``Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. 』And 『This is he of whom I said, After me cometh a man which is preferred before me: for he was before me. 』He knew that Jesus was sent as the Son of God, but he was the one who existed before him and from eternity. John confessed, "This is the one who comes after me but precedes me, and Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world to save mankind from sin."

And he testifies again And John bare record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him. And I knew him not: but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining on him, the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost
That is why he testifies that Jesus is baptizing with the Holy Spirit. The Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, the One who precedes me, the One whose Holy Spirit rests on it, and the One who baptizes with the Holy Spirit, testified of Jesus, and finally John the Baptist confessed that he was the Son of God.

He prepared the way of the Messiah, and when no one knew him he prepared the way. At a time when no one wanted the Messiah to come so, hoping that all people would see God's salvation, and thus prepared the way for the Lord to come. John the Baptist did not allow people to see, depend, and focus on himself, but to look to Jesus, the Coming One foretold by the Old Testament, to focus on Christ, to depend on and follow Christ. Knowing who the protagonist is and what his role is there, he took on his role like that. Only he hopes for Jesus to be revealed and he wants to be hidden, a man who has lived, recognizing and witnessing that Jesus is the Son of God and that He is the voice of the wilderness, God accepts His life, opens the way of Christ, He fulfilled the Word.