How Did John the Baptist Know the Messiah?

Gary:

You are listening to a special presentation of Search the Scriptures Daily, a radio ministry of The Berean Call.  Now, our final segment:

UNDERSTANDING THE SCRIPTURES

And we return once again to 2000, with Dave and Tom.

Tom:

Our topic for this segment is, the gospel of salvation, and we’re going through certain verses in the gospel of John.  Last week we went through verses 24-28, of chapter 1, so we’re going to pick up with verse 29.“The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.”  Dave, this verse is like the verse that you mentioned last week, the scripture that we know where Jesus said to Peter, “Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but God revealed it,” and I think this is one of those verses.

Dave:

Yeah, of course we have to understand the next day.  Obviously that is the day after he had baptized Jesus.  It doesn’t give us this in sequential order, in fact it does not tell us about the baptism when it happened, John is relating after the fact.  So, if we just jump ahead for the moment to verse 32, “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.And I saw, and bare record that this is the Son of God.”  So he’s relating what happened the day before, and explaining how he knows that Jesus is the Lamb of God.  And that was an amazing insight, which apparently John himself did not fully understand. Because on the one hand he identifies Him as the Messiah, I am the forerunner of the Messiah, I’ve been sent to baptize with water, and so forth, and I’m going to have this sign as to who the Messiah is, the Spirit will descent upon him, and so forth.  But now he gets another insight:  “The Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world.”  It seems that John didn’t fully understand that, because otherwise why would, as we mentioned last week, why would he ask Jesus, “Art thou he that should come, or look we for another.”  It seems that rather that he was expecting the Messiah to take the throne of His father David right then.

Tom:

Peter had the same problem.  

Dave:

Yeah, all the disciples did, and the rabbi’s did, the rabbi’s mocked Jesus on the cross, If you’re the Messiah, what are you doing up there?  

Tom:

So we’re dealing with God’s revelation to these prophets, these individuals who are speaking for God.

Dave:

Right, and yet, as we mentioned last week, John the Baptist, the greatest prophet, seemingly didn’t know the scriptures, because the scriptures had foretold that the Messiah would be crucified.  And to the two on the road to Emmaus, remember, Jesus says, “Fools,” because they are downhearted because Jesus, the one they thought was the Messiah and who did these miracles and so forth has been crucified.  To them, that seemed to prove that He couldn’t have been the Messiah.  Why would He have been killed?  And that’s why Jesus said, “Fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken—ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?”  And then it says, “Beginning at Moses, and all the prophets he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.”  It’s interesting because that is exactly what Paul emphasized Acts 17: 2-3.  He goes into the synagogue three Sabbath days, he reasons with them out of the scriptures.  It says, “Opening and alleging that Christ must need to suffer these things, and this Jesus that I preach unto you, He’s the Messiah, [and] He’s the Christ.”  Now, you can see what has troubled, not troubled had stumbled, Jesus is the stumbling block that the Jews stumbled over, it says.  What stumbled them, what confused them? Because He was crucified.  And if you ask a Jewish person today why don’t you believe in Jesus?  Well, He didn’t establish the kingdom, He didn’t establish peace.  He was supposed to sit on the throne of His father David.  But the scriptures, the prophets had clearly said that the Messiah would be cut off, Isaiah 53 tells us that:  “He was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities; chastisement of our peace is upon Him. With His stripes we are healed, he’s cut off out of the land of the living, for the transgression of my people is He stricken.”  Psalm 22 foretells us His crucifixion, and so forth.  And so if they had understood that then they would have realized He had to be crucified.  In fact, if Jesus was not crucified He was not the Messiah.  So again today it’s a problem of understanding the prophets.  And the Jewish person needs to go back and look at what their own prophets said.  It includes that the Messiah would be cut off.  For example, Daniel 9: 24, 25 it tells us very clearly that the Messiah would come.  It says there would be 69 weeks of years unto the coming of the Messiah the Prince.  He will come into Jerusalem, He will be hailed by his people as the Messiah that’s the day that we celebrate Palm Sunday now, and the Messiah will be cut off, but not for himself.  Obviously, as the scripture says, for the sins of the people.  So now we have Jewish people today still looking forward, and still waiting for the Messiah to come.  But the Bible, the prophets clearly said that when the Messiah comes He must be crucified.  They don’t practice crucifixion anymore.  Furthermore, it said after the Messiah would come and be crucified and rise from the dead, the temple would be destroyed and the city of Jerusalem would be destroyed.  So if they think the Messiah is yet to come for the first time, and they must look forward to his crucifixion and the destruction of the temple and the city of Jerusalem.  In fact, these things have already happened, and He will be coming the second time.  So, “Behold, the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world,” there is no other way for the sin of the world to be taken away, and for mankind to be forgiven, except that Christ had to pay the full penalty for our sins.

Tom:

Dave, there is another aspect of this that I find really fascinating.  Here we mentioned Peter, he’s before Jesus, and Jesus says, “Who do you say that I am?”  We have the revelation of God through Peter.  Here we have John; we have the revelations through John of God’s truth.  Both these instances are, I think, good examples of the scripture in 1^st or 2^nd Peter, “…holy men of God spoke….”

Dave:

2 Peter 1: “The prophecy came not in old time by the will of men, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.”

Tom:
Right, so in other words, this isn’t something that these men made up, because you see clearly at times they are speaking the revelation of God, and other times you can see they are wrestling with something.  So you see this is God’s Word through men of God.

Dave:

Exactly.  We mentioned last week that John the Baptist, of course was six months older than Jesus, he was His cousin, and he must have known him, must have known what a perfect sinless life He lived, and yet he did not speculate.  And on that basis, revealed Jesus as the Messiah, but he said, I was given a sign, upon whom you see the Spirit of God descend like a dove.  I knew Him not until I saw this sign.  So again, the scriptures are revealed by the Holy Spirit, inspired of the Holy Spirit, and of course, we have all the evidence we could have asked for, archeological, historical, prophetic, and so forth.

Tom:

And Dave, I know this is a little aside, but it’s here in the scriptures, verse 32, which you read:  “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him.  Do we have any idea, we have cars, these little stickers on cars, they are supposedly imagery of the Holy Spirit, but can we comprehend at all?

Dave:

No, I don’t believe it was a dove, of course, the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove, I don’t even think it was in the form of a dove.   I don’t know what that means, but a dove; if you observe them they are very peaceful. They are not predators and very gentle, and when they light—well, it’s just gentle.  I think that was what he is describing.  The Holy Spirit, how could you see a spirit, you can’t see a spirit.  I don’t know, I don’t know what it means, but it’s stated in words that we can understand, and here is the Spirit of God, like a dove abiding upon Christ.

Tom:

But John didn’t see this with his physical eyes; this is an understanding of what was taking place.  Well, it’s inspired of the Holy Spirit, to communicate us with it.

Dave:

We talked in past programs, I think of Theophenes, previous appearance of Jesus himself before of his incarnation, but he could take a form of a body.  Never does the Holy Spirit take the form of a body, much less the form of a dove.  So, this was something that he saw in the spirit, and understood, and this is the Lamb of God, who alone can bear away the sin of the world.  And this is the One in whom we have our faith, who paid the penalty for our sins, so that God could be just and justify sinners and offer redemption, forgiveness, eternal life in Jesus Christ alone.  

Tom:

Amen.

Gary:

We hope you have enjoyed this special edition of Search the Scriptures Daily, a radio ministry of The Berean Call.  And now, to tell you more about our ministry, here’s TBC Executive Director Tom McMahon: 

The name, The Berean Call, is taken from the Book of Acts:17:10-11 [10] And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea: who coming thither went into the synagogue of the Jews. [11] These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.
See All..., where we find the apostle Paul entering the synagogue in the Greek city of Berea after he had just come from Thessalonica.  To these Bereans he preached that Jesus was the long awaited Messiah sent from God.  They were commended for being noble, or fair minded, not only for their willingness to hear what Paul had to say about the  matter, but more specifically, because they searched the scriptures daily to find out whether or  not what the apostle was saying was found in God’s Word.  That’s what we hope to encourage through this ministry.  Our mission is to alert believers in Christ to unbiblical teachings and practices impacting the church.  Our prayer is that we can be used of God to stimulate Christians to look to the Bible alone as their rule of faith, authority and practice in living lives pleasing to our Lord and Savior.

Gary:

In addition to this radio program we publish a monthly newsletter which we make available free of charge.  We also produce and distribute a wide variety of teaching materials including books in print, e book and audio book formats, CD’s, DVD’s and other items to encourage the serious study of God’s Word.  For a complete list of materials or to get a copy of today’s broadcast, write to us at POB 7019, Bend, Oregon97708, call our toll free order number 800-937-6638, that’s 800-937-6638, or visit our website at www.thebereancall.org.  If you would like a copy of today’s broadcast on compact disk, ask for Program #3909, and be sure to mention the call letters of this station.  Get a pen or pencil ready; we’ll repeat our contact information in just a moment.  Next week, we continue our series of revisits to Dave Hunt’s book, An Urgent Call to a Serious Faith, and “Can love be selected?”  In Religion in the News: “Being Sensitive to Political Correctness.”  We’ll take a look at that story and examine the question:  “What is the difference between a hymn and a worship song?”  We hope you can join us.  If you have questions or comments about this program, we urge you to contact our offices.  Search the Scriptures Daily Radio Ministry is made possible by God’s grace, your prayers and your financial support.  I’m Gary Carmichael, and for Dave, Tom and everyone here at The Berean Call, I would like to thank you for tuning in, and invite you to join us again next week.  In the meantime, if you desire to know God’s truth, search the scriptures daily.  For more information about The Berean Call contact us at POB 7019, Bend, Oregon97708, call our toll free order number 1-800-937-6638, that’s 1-800-937-6638, or visit our website at www.thebereancall.org.