John 1:19-28
Who are you…
The religious leaders sent delegates to question John the Baptist. He made it clear that he was not the Christ. He was not the physical Elijah, although John was Elijah in the spiritual sense. He was not the prophet that Moses said would come (Deuteronomy 18:15). The Jewish leaders had it wrong (John 7:40-43), Jesus was who Moses and John spoke about (Acts 3:22, 7:37). People who are against God’s will use God’s Word and twist it to their own understanding (1 Timothy 6:3-5 / 2 Peter 3:15-16).
Just as the religious leaders didn’t believe the Messiah when He came, they did not see His herald for who he was. It will be the same for you. People are going to attack the message, and they will attack the messenger. Jesus told us that this would be the case (Luke 6:22-23, 10:16). It has always been that way, from the book of Acts until even this very day. People will question the move of God by questioning the credentials of the messenger, especially when it involves a call to move them into repentance.
Who are you to tell me? No matter who you are there will come times when you witness to someone who is smarter than you, better educated, and so on and so forth. But that isn’t the point. You are the one with the spiritual truth, the eternal truth, the most important truth. You are the most important person they will ever meet, unless and until they meet Jesus in truth. Point the way to Jesus; you don’t think you’re perfect, it means you follow the one who is.
We ought not to be offensive in ourselves, but the message of the cross of Christ is offensive to the natural mind already (1 Corinthians 1:18, 2:14). No matter how passionate our approach, persuasive our arguments, biblical our admonishments, and loving our appeals are, if God does not open the eyes of the spiritually blind, they will not see.
Who are you? You’re God’s messenger, that’s who (2 Corinthians 5:20 / 1 Peter 3:15-16).
3 comments:
The questioners were following along a naturally understood line. They went from Christ, to Elijah. They thought Elijah would be a forerunner of Christ based on Malachi 4:1, but they thought this meant physically. This is also why a chair is left open during the Passover Seder, and someone goes to the door, to look for Elijah, because if he hasn't come, neither has the Messiah. Jesus said John was Elijah, and John spoke of himself as the fulfillment of the prophecies, yet it meant a spiritual Elijah.
When they questioned John about being a prophet, they meant "The" "Prophet", as in the one Moses spoke about. Again the Jewish leaders were confused, because this was not simply going to be another forerunner of Christ, as they thought, this was going to be the Messiah Himself. Jesus said John was indeed a prophet, and the greatest one, yet we who are in Christ are greater than John, salvation is greater than vocation (remember our sermon, “Greater than the Greatest”).
Malachi 4:1ff, as in vs.5-6...
This is so even though Elijah appeared bodily at the Mount of Transfiguration (Matthew 17:3-13). Here we see Jesus explain it clearly, and it was understood.
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