Did John the Baptist Doubt Jesus?

STS1110d

Will We Ever See God?

Tom: Our topic for this segment is the gospel of salvation, and we’re going through certain verses in the Gospel of John which speak to the salvation we have in Christ. Of particular concern are the verses that tell us who Jesus is, which is critically important to our understanding the gospel.

Dave: Because He’s the Savior.

Tom: Amen.

Dave: So it all depends upon who He is.

Tom: Dave, I’m going to pick up with John:1:24And they which were sent were of the Pharisees.
See All... and I’ll read through 28.  “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?”

“And 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 shoes’ latchet I am not worthy to unloose. These things were done in Bethabara beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing.”

Dave, there’s some really interesting thoughts here.

Dave: Yeah. Of course, verse 24 is referring back to previous verses where they asked Him if He’s the Christ. Is He Elijah? Is He that prophet? And He says, “I’m not.” So then they say, “Well, if you aren’t, why are you baptizing?”

And we have three named here, “Christ, Elias, who would come before the Christ, the forerunner, neither that prophet.” I think that prophet has to be the Christ. The Messiah had to be prophet, priest, and king. But we read of that prophet in Deuteronomy 18, where Moses said that God would raise up a prophet like unto Him, and Him the people would hear. And then, of course, the book of Deuteronomy ends with the statement that there did not arise another prophet like unto Moses. So this was something they were looking forward to, and they knew that this great prophet had not come. This is one who when he spoke, the people would give heed to him, and if they did not, God would judge them, Deuteronomy 18 tells us.

So, they think that these are three separate people. In fact they are two people: the Messiah, who is also the great prophet, and Elijah. And John says, “Well, I baptize with water, but there’s one among you whom you don’t know, and I’m not even worthy to stoop down and undo his shoes.”

Now, I don’t think that John, at this time—in fact, I’m certain that John at this time did not know who the Messiah was. How did he know the Messiah was there among them? Among the people? Because he had been called to be His forerunner, and he was preaching and baptizing in obedience to God’s Word, God’s command. And therefore he knew the Messiah must be there.

And we get on further…

Tom: Well, before we get to 29, when He does discover this, or at least that’s the implication of this verse, Dave, let’s back up a little bit. We know that John the Baptist was related to Jesus. We also know that—though I don’t know how his memory was, but when Mary showed up and came into Elizabeth’s presence, they both were pregnant, and it says the child within leaped within her womb…

Dave: Within Elizabeth. He was six months old…

Tom: So, Elizabeth must have known things, and Mary…do you think they were separated to the point that…what I’m getting at here, is, do you really think that John the Baptist didn’t know that his cousin was the Messiah to come?

Dave:  Oh, I would be certain of that…

Tom: Okay…

Dave: …from the very scripture that we have in front of us. He knew that Jesus had lived a perfect sinless life. On the other hand, you see, when John the Baptist says to Jesus when He comes to be baptized, “You ought to baptize me. I shouldn’t baptize you.” Now, is he speaking from his understanding, from his experience, having observed his cousin, six months younger than he is, or is he speaking by revelation? We don’t know. We don’t know that.

But we do know that—well, we have to go on and read it, Tom.

Tom: Verse 29.

Dave: I could quote it. Well, no, I want to go down to verse 33…

Tom: Okay

Dave: He says, “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,’ and I saw, and bare record, this is the Son of God.”

So, you see, he did not know until—when He baptized Jesus, and Jesus came out of the water, here comes the Spirit descending like a dove, and then John says, “I knew Him, because that was what God told me would be the sign.”

Tom: Dave, this is really insightful, because sometimes we just think, “Well, you know, as I alluded to, John is the cousin of Jesus, and, you know, they were families together and so on—in other words, I was looking at rationalizing this through a kind of a human—in the human realm.

Dave: Right.

Tom: But what you’re telling us here, through the scriptures…

Dave: …what it says…

Tom: God is revealing this.

Dave: Of course.

Tom: John did not know. He was just obedient to God and…

Dave: Right.

Tom: …did what God told him, so this is out of the hands of men; this is God…

Dave: Right.

Tom: …doing this.

Dave: Well, you have the same thought in Matthew 16, when Peter says, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God,” Jesus said, “Flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto thee, but my Father, which is in heaven.”

So, on the one hand (and we need to emphasize it, and I love to emphasize it when I’m speaking, if that’s a topic they allow me to speak on), we have so many proofs—historic, prophetic, rational, logical proofs, that Jesus is the Christ. On the other hand, we can only understand and receive that by faith, as the Spirit of God reveals Him to us. So we have two sides to this.

Now, John, if we want to speculate, we could say he may have suspected that Jesus was the Messiah, because he must have observed his perfect, sinless life, but he didn’t know. And he’s waiting for God to reveal it.

Now, Tom, if we can launch out just a little bit, because one thing leads to another. It’s very interesting. John is filled…John the Baptist is filled with the Holy Ghost from his mother’s womb. That’s why as six-month-old fetus he leaped with joy in the womb of his mother when he heard the voice of Mary saying she would be bearing the Lord. He knows who he is. He tells them he is the voice of one crying in the wilderness. He knows he’s the forerunner of the Messiah. And now he sees the visible proof—the Holy Spirit descending like a dove, abiding upon Jesus, and there’s a voice from heaven that says, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.”

So, now, not only is He inspired by the Holy Spirit, but he has visible evidence. Then how could it be—Luke 7, as you know, tells us that from prison he sent two of his disciples, asking Jesus, “Art thou he that should come, or look we for another?” How could his faith have been shaken to that extent? I think it’s because he’s in prison about to get his head cut off, and he doesn’t comprehend the kingdom of God. All right? He’s like the two on the road to Emmaus. Christ says, “You fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Shouldn’t Christ have suffered…wasn’t He supposed to be crucified? You thought he was going to take the throne of his father David right now. No, no! That’s not what the prophets said.”

And John the Baptist—Jesus says there’s no greater prophet than he, and yet he didn’t understand either. He apparently thought that Christ would take the throne of David right then, and that, “of course, I would be Prime Minister or something, having introduced him.” And now he’s in prison, about to get his head cut off.

Tom: Yeah. Well, Dave, we talked earlier in the last segment—remember, we were talking about Jeremiah:17:9The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
See All... and then Jeremiah 23. We were talking about within us—on the one hand, we have a heart seeking after truth, because God calls us to do that; on the other hand, we have a heart of the flesh. Now, aside from some speculations that you made about why John may have been saying the things that he said, or…

Dave: He doubted, there’s no question about it.

Tom: Yeah. In other words, he’s just like us. We’re human. We have these times in which we fall back, and there’s times where we can speak the oracles of God because God is using us. We’re His vessels.

Dave: And what would have prevented him from being confused on this? The scriptures.

Tom: Right.

Dave: To know what the prophets had said. And he words it properly: “Art thou He that should come?” Someone was coming! How would we know who He was, when He would be here, and so forth. What He would do, the prophets foretold. And the prophets foretold that the Messiah would be crucified. He would have to come back again to take His kingdom, and John, I think, it’s quite clear he didn’t understand that, and that must be what caused him to lose his faith.

Tom: Yeah. Next week: verse 29, we’ll pick it up: The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him and sayeth, “Behold the Lamb of God!”