John's Witness - Day 1 The Religious Leadership

Well take your Bible this morning and turn with me to the Gospel of John. We are still in John chapter 1. We are in our series Christ the Son of God, Believe and Live. Now we heard a lot in that introduction verses 1 through 18 about biblical belief, did we not? Biblical Christianity, very educational in that it can correct a lot of erroneous teaching, but very evangelistic because it points people to true biblical conversion and I'm very thankful for that. A God called evangelist can preach some very powerful messages. We as people can be powerful witnesses by what we've learned in those verses, especially starting in verse 9.

Well this morning we are transitioning from the introduction of the book. We know by now the introduction of the book was verses 1 through 18 and in the introduction of the book we saw the first witness of several witnesses to come. John introduced us in verses 6 through 9 to the witness of John the Baptist. Remember those scriptures, just a few that introduced us to John told us that he was a witness. He was a judicial term, that word witness and he was a witness that all men might believe through him.

Now we're going to progress through the book and we will see that there are other witnesses who are going to come to be a witness to prove who Christ truly was. Now in the verses that are before us this morning we see John flesh out the writer of the book. He fleshes out this witness of John the Baptist a little more. John takes the time to give us a lot more detail about John, John the Baptist, about his ministry in verses 9 through 37. So if you're taking notes you can jot that down. Verses 9 through 37 will pertain to this witness, the first witness, the witness of John the Baptist.

Now obviously we will not cover all of those verses this morning. But if you take the time to read these verses you will see that this was a three day event. There are three different days that are covered from verses 19 through 37 and this morning we will break down day one. And that's how we're going to approach the verses. I ran across that in some study this week although I've been studying the text. I saw where John MacArthur attacked it or broke down the verses day one, day two, day three and I like that and I just kind of adopted that from his writing.

Now I don't know if you know it but the synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke, they all have their accounts of the ministry of John the Baptist as well. I would encourage you to take the time in your personal study time to go study those accounts as well. When you read what we're going to learn in John and then when you go to Luke and Matthew, Mark, when you go and read those accounts you will see specific details that John doesn't give us. We have a whole lot of information at our fingertips that fleshes out what we have before us with the witness of John the Baptist.

Now before we get into the text, before we read the text, I want to give you a little information, background information that will help you as we get a little more of the details that John has for us. First of all I want you to see that there were many great men in the Old Testament that we can learn about and study about. There were many great men. I will just casually mention three. For the Jew, probably the three greatest would have been Abraham, Moses and David. You know who Abraham was? We see that God called him in Genesis 12. He became the father of the Jewish nation.

All good Jews could trace their lineage all the way back to Abraham. Why? Because Abraham was the father of the Jewish people. God called him out of his polytheistic background. He was a pagan and he called him unto himself. God chose Abraham. So he was the father of the faith. That's why many of the religious leaders would look at Jesus and say, "We have Abraham as our father." So Abraham was a great one in their eyes. But Moses, remember it was God who called Moses to go back to Egypt to bring his people out of Egyptian captivity. Moses is a great picture of grace. He kind of tried to do that work on his own, did he not?

He had to spend 40 years in the wilderness and God working in him. He is the one who gave us the law. He's the one who, tradition tells us, he gave us the first five books of the Bible called the Pentateuch. So Moses was a great man of the Old Testament. Of course we have King David. David was not the first king, but he was the king who was a man after God's own heart. Remember it was David who had it in his heart to build the temple for the Lord. What was David's heart?

He said, "Lord, here I am living in a palace and the ark is in a tent." He said, "There's just something wrong with that." So he had it in his heart to build a temple for the Lord, but it was Samuel, the prophet Samuel who said, "David, no, you're a warrior king. It's your son who will build the temple." What am I showing you? These are three of the greats, but what does Jesus say about John the Baptist? Matthew 11, verse 11, notice what Christ Jesus says of John. He says, "Truly I say to you, among those born of women," that's all inclusive, "there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist." You get that?

Jesus is saying, "You take all of the greats in the Old Testament, there's none greater than John." John was the last of the Old Testament prophets, was he not? And Jesus is giving a summary, as he is paying tribute in the book of Matthew, he looks at those, he says, "Let me tell you, there's not one greater than John." That's good for us to have in our minds and hearts as we look at his ministry here. Second, I want you to see the environment in which John came. John burst on the scene in a particular environment. See there was great anticipation in the hearts and the lives of Israel and the Jews.

It was just this cauldron of events and circumstances that really became a high pressure situation. There was among the people of God, the Jews, there was great anticipation for the promised Messiah. They were yearning, they were hungering, they were looking, they always had their eye on the horizon looking for the Messiah. There was a great silence from God to the people. I don't know if you know it, but between the prophet Malachi in the book of Matthew, there was 400 years of silence where God did not have a voice in this people. That produced great anticipation. Also Israel was in the grips of Roman occupation.

Rome occupied the land, Rome dominated the land, and therefore there was great occupation. That's why you would run across these groups. One of the disciples was Simon, Simon the zealot. The zealots were, they were called dagger men. They were modern day terrorists. They were ready to rise up and drive by force the Romans out. Produced great anticipation. And then there was the great desire for that deliverance that really stirred up this, they was always in the back of their mind, revolution. Why? Because they desired to be God's people like they were in days of old with King David. So what am I showing you?

In this environment, there comes John. And then the third thing I want you to see is that when John came, he started up great questions. People started asking, was he the revolutionary to overthrow the Romans? People started saying, was he one of the old prophets? And then people started saying, could he be the Messiah? What am I showing you? I'm giving you a little bit of a picture of the environment in which John came onto the scene. It was a heated situation. There was great pressure mounting every day. Jerusalem was occupied by Pilate. He was this cruel governor from Rome.

He was more of a soldier than a politician, but he was thrust onto the scene to be a governor and he was a strict hard handed governor. Even the Jews did have Herod, their King. He was a puppet King. As a matter of fact, he wasn't even a full blooded Jew and he was so paranoid of losing the throne that when the wise man came from the East and saying, where is the King of the Jews been born? The scripture says that he had all of the male babies, two years old and younger slaughtered in Bethlehem and the region. What am I showing you? This is the scene in which John came. This is the environment. And it's important for us to study John. Why?

Because he is this great witness. He's the great preparer for the way of the Lord. Now as we get into the text here in a minute and we study it and we break it down, we're going to ask ourselves three questions. We're going to look at three questions that come out of this first one day event. So let's go to the scripture together starting in verse 19. Notice the word it says, and this is the witness. We've already heard that word witness before. This is the witness of John. When the Jews sent to him priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, who are you? And he confessed and he did not deny and he confessed. I am not the Christ.

And they ask him, what then are you Elijah? And he said, I am not. Are you the prophet? And he answered, no. And they said to him, who are you so that we may give an answer to those who sent us? What do you say about yourself? And then verse 23, this is how John replies. He said, I am a voice of one crying in the wilderness. Make straight the way of the Lord. As Isaiah, the prophet said, now they had been sent from the Pharisees and they asked him and they said to him, why then are you baptizing if you are not the Christ nor Elijah nor the prophet?

Verse 26, John answered them saying, I baptize in water or with water, but among you stands one, you do not know. It is he who comes after me, the thong of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie. And then this verse, verse 28 kind of summarizes the event or really wraps up the setting of the event. It says these things, they took place in Bethany beyond the Jordan where John was baptizing. Now, I've already said to you that we're going to look at three questions. I'll put them on the screen for you and they come right out of the text. You should have plenty of time to write them down and I encourage you to take notes.

I encourage you to take notes so that you can go back and study on your own for your future reference so that you would get all that the Lord wants to give to you this morning and the days to come. So let's explore this first question and that brings us to that question that's on the screen number one, who came to see John? Who came to see him? Let's look at these verses. There are three verses I want to call our attention to. Verse 19 notice, and this is the witness of John when the Jews sent to him priests and the Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, who are you? So what do we see? The Jews sent priests and Levites. Look at verse 22.

They said to him, who are you so that we may go give an answer to those who sent us? Look at verse 24. Now they had been sent from the Pharisees. What are we looking at? There is a delegation. There is a group that has been sent to ask and see of this individual John. And these verses, these three verses speak of people from the religious establishment who came to investigate what was going on. As we see in verse 28, they came to where he had been baptizing. He was already involved in this ministry. Now let me break this verse down. Let me show you these individuals. First, there were the Jews. Look at verse 19.

This is the witness of John when the Jews sent to him priests and Levites. All of the translations that we look at say the same thing virtually. Now John the writer, the apostle who writes this, he was speaking of the religious leaders who were in authority. Now we know that Israel was comprised of the Jews, but he's using this word Jews in a more specific manner. This would have consisted of the Sanhedrin, those who were the governing body in Israel. The Sanhedrin were those who were opposed to Jesus and ultimately we know the end of the story. They played a major role in the death of Christ.

But yet not all of the religious leaders were opposed to Christ. We know that Nicodemus later was converted. He came to Jesus in John chapter three. We know that there was Joseph of Arimathea and what did he do? He took the body of Jesus and put it in a borrowed tomb. But what am I showing you? There were the Jews and John is speaking of those who were in that religious establishment who sent a delegation to investigate about John. And also we see in verse 19, there were the priests and Levites. Those are the ones who were sent by the Jews. We see that in the verse. Now who were the priests and Levites?

The priests were those men who were intermediaries between God and man. In Jewish worship, they would go to the priest and the priest would go before God. The priest would stand before between God and man. And the priests were those who were the theologians of the day. They functioned as the officials in the temple ceremonies. So they were the ministers of the day. Then also there were the Levites. Now the Levites, they were descendants of the tribe of Levi, but they were not descendants of Aaron. So they could not be priests.

If you know your old Testament, Aaron's descendants were the ones who became priests, but not the Levites because they were not descendants of Aaron. But what was their role? They were assistants to the priests in the temple. They functioned in many different roles in the temple. They functioned as temple musicians and really also temple police. But what am I showing you? These were the ministers of the day. They were the theologians of the day. They were the priests of the day. They were the ones who took care of worship there in the temple for the people of God. And they were sent by the Jews to investigate this man John.

But then verse 24 mentions the Pharisees. Now who were the Pharisees? The Pharisees were part of this two party system. Now I don't have time to go into it, but you've got to understand that the Sanhedrin represented the two party system. There were the Pharisees and the Sadducees. To be very simplistic, the Pharisees were very conservative in their theology where the Sadducees were a little more liberal in their theology. The Pharisees had the bulk of their ministry with the people, the lay people. But the Pharisees were part of this two party system which was part of the Sadducees.

But the Pharisees were not in total control of the Sanhedrin. They were a little more of a minority. What am I trying to show you? We see the Sanhedrin. We see the Jewish leaders. We see the specific Pharisees. And we see that coming from that group, those who were the governing body, they're in Israel, they're in Jerusalem, they sent a delegation, they sent the priests, they sent the Levites to investigate who John was. This speaks of the religious establishment. This speaks of the ones who were in control there in Israel. But I want to ask us a question. Why did they come? We know John, what does the scripture say?

Verse 28 says that he was in a place in Bethany on the Jordan. That was outside of Jerusalem. But why did they come? Why did they come to investigate? You've got to see that John rebuked the entire system. And cut against the grain of all that these religious leaders were doing. As a matter of fact, he was bold and he was harsh and he was even insulting in his preaching. If you go to Luke chapter 3, you can see some of the things he said. He called him a brood of Vipers. That's not a way to gain influence, is it? He called them to repentance.

As a matter of fact, when they looked at John and said, "We are children of Abraham," what did he say? He said, "You produce fruit in keeping with repentance," in other words, do that to prove that you're a true descendant of Abraham. What am I showing you? They came to represent a man who was bucking the system. He was cutting against the grain of the religious establishment. Why? Because it was in great, great, great need of reform. Reform, reformation. You know, when we look at church history, we can see where reform has happened all through the ages. You can call it reform. You can call it revival.

Lots of times those things go hand in hand. It's happened in America before. It's happened in Europe before. I think about the great revival, the great awakening, the great movement of God there in England in the 1700s with the Wesley's, John and Charles Wesley. What did they do? They were bucking the system of English Anglicanism because it had become dead. It had become dry, and all of the populace were headed towards hell. What did they do? John and Charles Wesley, as well as Whitfield, they went to the populace, and what did they do? They had what's called a grassroots revival. It started with the people, and it went up.

That's all you have with John. It's starting with the people, and it's trying to go up. It happened in America during the first great awakening. There were many of those leaders who cut against the grain of the religious establishment. Now, what do we see here with John? This is part of God's plan. John came on the scene as a forerunner to Christ, and this is a grassroots revival because the populace, the people from the countryside in Judea, the people from Jerusalem were coming out, and what was he doing? He was preparing their hearts, their lives for Christ. What do we see? The religious establishment came to see who he was.

Who is this man preaching? Who is this man baptizing? Who is this man that great crowds would come to follow him? We see those who came to see him. Then second, I want us to see, again in the form of a question, who are you? Who are you? Look at the second portion of verse 19, and then we're going to read on down to verse 23. It says that those Jews sent the Levites and priests, and they asked him, "Who are you?" Verse 20, and he confessed, and he did not deny, and he confessed, "I am not the Christ." They asked him, "What then? Are you Elijah?" He said, "I am not.

Are you the prophet?" He answered, "No." Then they said to him, "Who are you so that we may give an answer to those who sent us? What do you say about yourself?" What do we see? They are asking, "Who in the world are you?" All of the translations that we have before us this morning pose the question the same way. What do we see here? They are asking a basic question. This tells us, it tells me, that there was a lot of confusion as to who John really was. Because see, listen, John did not fit their expectations at all. I've already established with you that they were yearning for Messiah. They were yearning for the voice and the work of God.

They knew the Scriptures. But John comes along, and John did not fit their expectations. Now I want us to look at three questions or possibilities posed out of these verses. First, what did they say? "Are you the Christ?" Go back to the verse. "Who are you?" He confessed, and he did not deny, and he confessed, "I am not the Christ." Now the text does not say that they asked him if he was the Christ or the Messiah. But John's reply says the question was definitely on their mind. Maybe they had asked it, but we know that it was on their mind. Now I want you to notice John's words. What does he say? "I am not the Messiah.

I am not the Christ." Now the construction of the language is key. Because the phrase "I am not," it is in the emphatic, meaning that John boldly, boldly declared, he boldly attacked it, and he said, "I am not the Messiah." Notice also the text. What does it say? He confessed, he did not deny, he confessed, it's repetitive. Why is it repetitive? Again, it goes back to John's desire to deny without any question that he was the Messiah. I like how the Amplified reads this portion.

The Amplified says he confessed, he admitted the truth, and he did not try to conceal it, but acknowledged, "I am not the Christ." That is unmistakably denying being the Christ or the Messiah or the promised one. So it's obvious how he answered the question. The second question is, "Are you Elijah?" Back to life. Go back to the verse. And they ask him, "Well, what then? Are you Elijah?" And what did he say? "I am not." Now what is the meaning here of them questioning if he was Elijah? Because the text says that they asked him if he was Elijah, and he denied it. Now what's the meaning here?

The Jews in that day, they believed that right before the Messiah was to come and establish his earthly kingdom, that Elijah would come back to earth and he would come back physically. And they got this from the prophecy found in Malachi chapter 4 verse 5. Now this was a natural assumption by the Jews since John appeared in many ways much like Elijah. He looked like Elijah in his dress. He looked like Elijah in his diet. He looked like Elijah and he sounded like Elijah in his message. So that's why they could logically ask the question, "Are you Elijah?" That is a natural assumption.

As a matter of fact, Mark chapter 1 and verse 6 gives us a description of John. And second Kings chapter 1 verse 8 gives us a description of Elijah, and we can see that they were very similar in the way they look. But why the confusion? John was much like Elijah, yes, but literally he was not Elijah. We know the scripture says that he came in like fashion, calling people to repentance. He came in the spirit and the power of Elijah. Luke chapter 1 verse 17 says, "So what did they say? Are you Elijah?" He says, "No, I am not Elijah." But in Luke we see that he came in the spirit and the power like Elijah.

And then the third question, "Are you the prophet?" Look back at verse 21. What do they say? "Are you Elijah?" He says, "I am not." And then they say, "Are you the prophet?" And he answered, "No." Now what is the meaning of this, "Are you the prophet?" Notice they did not say, "Are you one of the prophets?" They said, "Are you the prophet?" This comes out of Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy chapter 18 verse 15 through 18 said that a prophet like Moses would come and would speak the word. Remember they are waiting for what? They are waiting for God to work. And this was a prophecy connected to the end times in the minds of the Jews.

So this was logical deduction for them. "Are you the Messiah?" "No." "Are you Elijah?" "No." And where did they get that from? Malachi. And then they automatically said, "Are you the prophet, the one we've learned about from Deuteronomy?" And what did he say? "No." So with John's response they had to be very frustrated. Look back at verse 22. Then they said to him, "Who are you so that we may give an answer to those who sent us? What do you say about yourself?" So really and truly the question that they asked, "Who are you?" He never got answered because they were very frustrated because what? He did not fit into their expectations.

Now notice John does not give him a description of himself or his ministry, but what does he do? John answers by quoting the scripture. Look at verse 23. "I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness. Like straight the way of the Lord," and this is a prophecy from Isaiah. And as a matter of fact, all of the other gospels give us this same account, give us this same prophecy. So John does not answer the question in and of himself, he just gives them the Word of God. Now how valid and powerful is John the Baptist's answer? Think about that. How valid and how powerful is that answer? I've already said it.

All four gospels record that John is the fulfillment of this prophecy, but only the gospel of John shows John the Baptist quoting this verse. And the validity is he is basically saying, "I have no words to say other than who I am from the Word." All he says is, "I am the voice. I am the one coming to prepare the way for the Lord." And again, it still did not satisfy them because they could not understand spiritual things. Now for us, what could we learn from that? How could that speak to us?

Remember, I've always tried to be very good with taking the scripture and bringing it down to you and applying it to your life, applying it to us as the church and God's people. What we can learn is this. John had no role in and of himself other than that which God gave him. He didn't offer a description of himself. He didn't try to validate himself. He didn't try to explain himself. They asked him questions. He said, "No, no, no." And then what did he say? "I am the voice." The only thing he gave is that which God gave him.

And so for me, for you, for us, what I think that we could learn from that is that the church needs to get back to what the scripture says the church should be. The church today is so busy trying to redefine itself, trying to express itself in a unique way, trying to relate to this person and that person and this group and that group. Look, if John the Baptist would have had this attitude, he would have asked them, "Who do you want me to be?" And then he would have stepped up and said, "That's who I'll be." He would have been a chameleon, would he not? But what did he do? He did not answer in and of himself.

He only answered according to that which the word gave him. And the church needs to do the very same thing today. The church needs to be narrow-minded and be in function only the way the scripture allows her to be in function. I guess if I could try to borrow this scenario, when the world comes to us and says, "Who are you?" The only answer we should give is what the scripture says the church should be.

My wife and I were talking about a particular church situation, church situation that has leadership problems, leadership structures that are unbiblical, and I looked at her this morning just on the way out and I said, "Based on what I know from the scripture, I could not go there because it is a direct violation of the scripture." And John is an example of that. He would not deviate from what the word allowed him to be. We've had this go on in church history. Think about the great reformation.

What did those men do like Calvin and Luther and Zwingli and so many others as they saw the church had gone to the right and gone to the left of what the scripture says, they jumped up and they shouted, "No, this is what the scripture says the church and Christians should be." All they did was shout at reform on the basis of the word of God. So if John had a modern day mentality, he would have polled him.

He would have taken out a piece of paper and he would have asked them, he would have polled the audience and he would have said, "Who do I need to be so I can more relate to you?" So if those priests and Levites would have jumped up and said, "Well, we'd like you to be Elijah," he would have said, "Well, okay, I'll be Elijah." No. What did he do? He said, "I'm a voice." And there is a difference in a voice and an echo and we've already talked about that. And that is much that we can learn that can be very relevant for us as the church. Now let's move on to question number three.

I want us to see question number three was, "Why are you baptizing?" Look at verse 25. And they asked him and said to him, "Why then are you baptizing?" See, he had no place of relevance for them. This isn't the Messiah. This isn't Elijah. You're not the prophet. So what did they say? "Well, then why are you baptizing? If you're not Christ, Elijah, or the prophet?" John answered them saying, "I baptize in water or with water, but among you stands one whom you do not know.

It is he who comes after me, the thong of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie." The question almost seems to shift from who are you to who in the world do you think you are? Now, I'm not trying to read anything into the text, but it almost seems to come out of that for us. Why? Because they were like, "Who in the world are you? You don't fit our expectations. So what grounds do you have to baptize?" What were they doing? They were questioning not just John's baptism, but they were questioning his authority. So that leads us to two things I want us to see out of the text. First, they questioned his authority. Notice what they said.

If you're not the Christ, if you're not Elijah, if you're not the prophet that Deuteronomy talks about, who are you? And if you are not these three, by what authority are you preaching and what authority are you baptizing? That is a natural progression in their questioning. Who are you out of verse 19? And then now we see out of verse 25, well then why are you baptizing? They're questioning and they do not understand his authority. The second thing I want you to see is that John did not answer the question of authority. Notice that.

Look at verse 25, and they asked him and they said to him, "Why then are you baptizing if you're not the Christ, Elijah, nor the prophet?" John answered them saying, "I baptize in water." He didn't deal with the authority. He dealt with what he was doing. "I baptize with water or in water, but among you stands one whom you do not know. It is he who comes after me, the thong of his sandal, I am not worthy nor untie." And I want you to notice John's answer. Notice John spoke of his baptism. He addressed it. What did he say? John says, "I baptize with water." Now what's the meaning of John's baptism? John's baptism was a symbol.

It was a preparation of what was to come. It was a symbol of repentance and preparation for the coming Messiah. They were baptized as a symbol of repentance looking forward to the Messiah. And John's baptism was very controversial. Let me explain to you why. The Jews understood baptism. If you study the Old Testament, you will understand that one of the purposes of the Jews was to evangelize. When you know that the Pharisees were very good at evangelism, they had great evangelistic zeal. And when they would go out and they would evangelize Gentiles, they became what's called proselytes.

And when they became proselytes, they adopted the Jewish faith. They were baptized. Now what do we see here? This baptism was scandalous in the eyes of the Jews because for the Jews to step up and be baptized, they were identifying themselves as sinners. And in the eyes of the Jewish establishment, they would have likened themselves to Gentiles. So it was very, very controversial. So what do we see? John spoke of his baptism. This is a symbol. This is a symbol of repentance and a preparation for the coming Messiah. But then also notice John spoke of Christ. What does he say? I baptize with or in water, but immediately what does he say?

But among you stands one. Now my new American has the one capitalized signifying deity. I did not check that with the other translations. Whom you do not know. What do we see here? John spoke of Christ. He says there is one who stands among you and you do not even know who he is. What does that tell me? This was already there. He was on the scene. What do we see? John spoke of Christ. And then notice John took his proper place as a servant. Look at verse 27. "It is he who comes after me, the thong of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie." What is John saying?

You might not realize it, but culturally it was the job of the lowest servant or slave to take care of the master's feet. This would have been a very degrading remark. It would have been very degrading to the Jewish people. And what is John doing? John is simply stating, "I am the lowest of slaves and servants to the one who is among you and I am baptizing in preparation for him." That is how John answered the question. He did not address his authority. He addressed what he was doing. See for the Jews, this was terribly insulting. Like I said earlier, they would have seen the Jews behaving like Gentiles. And here was this Elijah-like man.

He preached with fire. He was filled with the spirit and he had the power of God. The multitudes were coming from the city, from Jerusalem, from Judea, from the countryside. And he was baptizing them by the multitudes and that was terribly insulting to the Jewish leadership, the priests and the Levites because it did not fit who they expected one to be. And you know again, for application, I have to think about that one word, authority. You know the church only has authority in the culture when the church does what the scripture says the church should do.

Do you realize that John would have had no authority and no power had he operated outside of what the prophecy of Isaiah said? This call, God's call on his life. If he would have stepped from the left to the left or the right of that, if he had deviated from what God told him to do, he would have had no authority. See the church has lost its authority. The church has no authority. The church has no power. And look, its persecution will arise, I believe. We will find out who the true church is. And the only way the church has authority is when the church stands up and does what the scripture says the church should do and that and that alone.

That's why you saw the Wesley's and the Whitfield's. That's why you saw the Jonathan Edwards step up and they had great authority because they were trying to bring the church, they were trying to bring the people of God, they were trying to bring the ministry and preaching back to the authority of the word and the premise from which they operated was from the word and therefore the spirit of God gave them the power of God and they struck out with authority. That's why John baptized. He had authority. Now think about it.

The priests, the Levites and the religious leaders, they didn't have authority, but there's this wild Elijah like man in the wilderness and he has authority and he's impacting the culture and the church needs to desperately get back to what the scripture says the church should be and do. Why? Because that's the only way we will have authority to impact the world, to impact our children, to impact our spouses and our neighbors and our friends. So this is very relevant to us today. So as I begin to close, what do we see? We see these three questions. They came to see him.

I don't know if you have noticed this, but the world is not coming to see who we are. The only way the world seems to be coming into the church today is when the church starts to behave like the world and act like the world and function like the world so that the world will come. And you know what? What I have noticed is that might look good and it might look successful at a distance, but when you come up close to it, it's a revolving door. It doesn't work because you can never compete with the world. You never can. And see, when the church becomes the church, the world will come and they will say, "Who are you?

What are you?" Because they will be astounded by the power and the work of God. And what will we see? We will see authority, power, and the ability to impact the multitudes. So the first question, who came to see him? And why are you doing what you were doing? And why are you baptizing all of this? Alews, all of this to me, points us to why we do what we do. And John is a great example of only doing what God has called him to do and his whole purpose was to prepare the way for the Lord. In a sense, John was nameless, faithless, faithless, purposeless. He had no agenda of his own, no plan of his own, no hope of his own, nothing.

All he had was Christ. And what did Jesus say? None greater. But I didn't read you the remaining portion of the verse and I will leave this with you as we close. As Jesus was paying tribute to John again, "Truly I say to you, among those born of women there is not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist." And he goes on to say, "Yet he who is the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he." That tells me that if we would humble ourselves and become nobodies, have no words of our own, no plans of our own, no hopes of our own, no agendas for our own, if we would align our lives and the church according to what the Scriptures say we should be and do, then we can be as Jesus describes, we can be even greater than he.

And no, I do not understand that. But that is when the church will have power. That is when the church will impact people. That is when the church will reach the lost. That is when the church, listen, will become a testimony to the lost world. And that is when the lost world will look at the church and say, "Who in the world are you and how do you do what you do?" We don't understand it. And some will scoff. Remember John lost his head. The world will not come beating down our door and say, "Oh, we want to be like you. We want to be like you." No, the world will scoff and they will ridicule and they will even persecute.

But the world will take notice when we are who we should be. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, I want to thank you for the example of John.