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(upbeat music) - Welcome to Daily Drive Time Devotions. This is day three of our
look together through John chapter one, verses 19 to 34 today. We're going to be
looking together at a man by the name of John the Baptist.

You know, sometimes you see those little blurbs in the back of book jackets,
where they talk about how this person was great and they did this and they did
that. You see nice things said about people. Well, John the Baptist had
something nice said about him once and it was by no greater authority than Jesus
Christ.

Here's what Jesus said about John the Baptist. Luke chapter seven, verse 28, he
said, "I tell you, John is greater "than any other person ever born, "but even
the least important person in the kingdom of God "is greater than John. " And he
puts it in perspective at the end about how great we are in the kingdom of God,
but at the beginning he says, John is greater than any other person ever born,
any other person, Moses, Abraham, Deborah, Esther, David, any other person.

My question is, what can I learn from him? If Jesus said that he had that kind
of life of greatness, what can I learn from him? Well, as we look together at
verses 19 to 34, there are three things that I see to learn from John.

First of all, I can learn that John knew who he was. That was one of the secrets
of his greatness. He knew who he was.

In verse six and seven, there came a man sent from God. His name was John. He
came as a witness to testify concerning the light so that through him all men
might believe.

John knew that he was a man sent from God. People came from everywhere flocking
to hear him, to see him. He knew that he was simply a man sent from God.

He was a man who didn't fit the mold. Now, John, his name was a common name then
and now, but he was not a common person. He was unique.

He didn't fit the mold of a Pharisee or a Sadducee or a scribe, the religious
groups of that day, religious leaders. He didn't look like a prophet. He didn't
talk like a priest.

He didn't smell like a saint. He lived out in the desert. He was unique, but he
didn't aim to be different.

He aimed at being obedient, just a man sent from God. His verse also says he
knew that he was a witness, a witness to the light. In verse 23, we're told that
he knew he was a voice of one calling in the desert.

John replied in verse 23 in the words of Isaiah the prophet, "I'm the voice of
one calling in the desert. "Make straight the way of the Lord. " He knew that
about himself.

Make straight the way of the Lord. Make a road, a road that would be fit for a
traveling king because of the importance of his journey, the importance of the
person. He paved the way for Jesus Christ.

John knew, he knew that he was a baptizer. We all know that. That's what we call
him, John the Baptist.

He knew that he was a baptizer with water. Listen to what he said in verses 24
to 26. "Now some Pharisees who had been sent questioned him.

"Why then do you baptize if you're not the Christ "nor Elijah nor the prophet? "
"I baptize with water," John replied. "But among you stands one who you do not
know.

" "God sent me to baptize," he said. And John's baptism was a baptism of
cleansing, not a filling of cleansing. It was a baptism of water and not of the
spirit.

I've had many people ask me about this chapter. If baptism is a symbol of our
new life in Jesus Christ, then why did John baptize? Well, I want you to
understand three baptisms that are important to understand in this section.

You need to understand Jewish baptism and John's baptism and then believer's
baptism. Jewish baptism, John wasn't the only one baptizing in that day, nor
were Jesus later and his disciples. When someone wanted to come into the Jewish
faith as an adult, they would often be baptized.

It was a sort of a ceremonial washing and a sign that they wanted to see some
change in their life. That was already going on. And then John came into the
picture and you have John's baptism, which was a baptism of repentance.

I want to repent of my sins. Now, did this baptism save someone? Did it give
them a relationship with God?

No, Acts chapter 18 verse 24, Acts chapter 19, we're told throughout the book of
Acts, no, it did not. Those who were baptized with the baptism of John, that was
just looking forward to getting to know Jesus someday. Jesus is the one who
saves, not John.

So you have Jewish baptism, then John's baptism, but then you have believer's
baptism in the New Testament. That's the baptism that after you've been saved by
grace, you say, I want to be baptized to show everybody what God has done in my
life. Now, with that aside about baptism aside, let's get back to John.

John knew who he was. He was a baptizer. He was a voice of one calling in the
desert.

He knew who he was, but more importantly, he knew who he was not. He knew who he
wasn't. And this possibly more than anything else was the secret of his
greatness.

When in verse 23, some priests and Levites and investigation committee came to
see him and they asked, who are you? He begins by telling them who he is not. He
says, I'm not the Messiah.

Verse 19, they came and they asked, who are you? In verse 20, he says, he did
not fail to confess. He confessed freely, I am not the Christ.

And then in verse 21, they asked him again, who are you? Are you Elijah? I am
not.

Are you the prophet? No. Elijah and the prophet were both Old Testament figures
that were looking forward to some day that God would come in Jesus Christ.

The promised one would come. They didn't know that it was going to be Jesus Christ
in that day, but they looked forward to Elijah coming or the prophet coming as a
forerunner to the Messiah, the promised one. Are you that one?

Nope. John said, nope, that's not who I am. One of life's most important
questions is in verse 22, who are you?

And this was a crucial point in the life of John. It's a crucial point in all of
our lives. And John could have bragged at that moment.

He had a great ancestry. His father was a priest. He could have talked about
that.

He had a great spiritual story. You might remember that John the Baptist was
filled with the Holy Spirit in his mother's womb. He could have talked about
that.

He could have talked about his success baptizing in the desert. He could have
talked about his sacrifice, eating locusts and wild honey. But his choice, he
just said, I'm a voice.

I'm a voice of one that calls out in the desert. I'm a baptizer looking forward
to what God's going to do. John the Baptist knew who he wasn't and he knew who
he was.

Just that simple. Knowing who he was not clarified God's call in his life and
knowing who he was clarified God's call in his life. Knowing who he was not kept
him from chasing after that, which was not God's call.

Kept him from wasting time and confusion about God's call and knowing who he was
gave him the clarity of direction to know what to do in God's call in his life.
Now it's not enough just to know who you aren't and it's not enough just to know
who you are. It takes both, but it also takes a third thing.

In fact, the third thing is even more important. John knew who he wasn't, he
knew who he was and he knew who Jesus was. To be great, you have to understand
who Jesus really is.

The more you understand of him, the greater you can become. I just want to walk
quickly through these verses and notice the depth of John's understanding of
Jesus. John understood Jesus' greatness.

In verse 27 he says, "This is the one who comes after me, "the thongs whose
sandals I am not worthy to untie. " In that day there was a rabbinic saying,
"Every service which a slave performs for his master "shall the disciple do for
his teacher "except the loosing of his sandal thong. " He says when somebody's
learning from someone as a disciple they don't have to unloose their sandal
thong, that's beneath them.

And John says, "You know what? "I'm not even worthy to do that for him. " He
understood the greatness of Jesus.

He understood the purpose of Jesus. In verse 29, the next day John saw Jesus
coming toward him and he said, "Look, the lamb of God "who takes away the sin of
the world. " He looked back to the Old Testament, the sacrificial lamb that was
slain so that people's sins would be forgiven.

And he says, "This is the lamb of God "who once and for all is going to take away
"the sins of the world. " We're going to talk about that a lot in the Gospel of
John. He takes away the sin, not just covers it over, he takes it away.

He understood Jesus' nature. In verse 30 he says, "This is the one I meant when
I said, "A man comes after me and he surpassed me "because he was before me. "I
myself did not know him, "but the reason I came baptizing with water "was so
that he might be revealed to Israel.

"He surpassed me because he was before me. " He understands that in some way
Jesus was before him. Even though John was born before Jesus a few months, Jesus
was before me.

Now, remember, John the Baptist and Jesus had a relationship with each other.
When Mary, Jesus' mother, was pregnant with Jesus, she went to see a relative by
the name of Elizabeth. And Elizabeth was pregnant with John the Baptist.

They were related to each other, they were cousins. And so John knew who Jesus
was, and yet here he says, "I myself did not know him. " What does that mean?

Well, there's two words for know in the Greek language. One means to have a
relationship or an acquaintance with, that's not the idea here. The other is the
idea of figuring out, truly understanding.

And he says, "In this moment, I understand his nature. "I see who he is, he is
the one. " And so because of that, John understood.

He understood Jesus. He understood his calling also. In verse 32, "I saw the
Spirit come down from heaven "as a dove and remain on him.

" God has called him. He understood his power, his power to baptize with the
Holy Spirit. "I would not have known him except the one who sent me "to baptize
with water told me, "the man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain,
"he's the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.

" And that phrase, baptize with the Holy Spirit, we attach a lot of different
spiritual meanings to that. I think this is one verse where it would have been
better to translate the Greek word baptize rather than just take the Greek
letters, baptizo, and put them over into English. The Greek word baptize just
means immerse.

So except the one who sent me to immerse people with water told me the man on
whom you see the Spirit come down, he's going to immerse people in the Holy Spirit.
The idea here is that Jesus wants to immerse us in his Spirit, the Spirit of
God, to give us God's power in our lives. He understood Jesus' power.

And he also understood his Godhood. I have seen in verse 34 and I testify that
this is the Son of God. He knew who Jesus was.

When we get to John chapter three, we're going to see that this is tested again in
John the Baptist's life. Knowing who Jesus is, knowing who you are, knowing who
you are not, that's not a question you settle once and for all. I've found that
it gets tested again and again and again in life.

So I want to invite you as we pray, let's settle it today, for today, as we pray.
As you pray, just say, Jesus Christ, help me to recognize who I am, who you've
made me to be, and to live that out with joy, the joy of your creation. And help
me to recognize who I am not, what you've not made me to do, and to even rejoice
in living out who you've made me to be, but not trying to live out what you've
not made me to be.

Help me never to try to become a copy of someone else. And Jesus, more than
anything else, helped me today to recognize who you are and to live out in my
life the truth of who you are, your purpose, your greatness, your power. I need
you, Jesus Christ.

I ask for your strength today. In your name, amen. Well, tomorrow we're going to
begin to look together at the way that Jesus called his first disciples to
follow him in verses 35 to 42.