john the baptist Archives - dissectingthescriptures.com

⁶There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. ⁷He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. ⁸He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. ⁹The true light which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. ¹⁰He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. ¹¹He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. ¹²But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God,¹³who were born, not of blood or the will of the flesh, or of the will of man, but of God.

Observations

To understand this passage, it helps to understand the time period into which John the Baptist arrived. Directly before the arrival of John, was 400 years of silence, during which God did not speak to the Jewish people. This silence began with a warning from the prophet Malachi and ended with the arrival of John the Baptist.

John the Baptist’s arrival must certainly have been punctuated by this silence. His message was all the more convicting and convincing for the crowds who flocked to hear his message. The bible is very clear that John the Baptist is called “Elijah” because he came in the “spirit and power of Elijah” (see Luke 1:17), not Elijah in the literal sense.

⁶There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. ⁷He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. ⁸He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. According to John, John the Baptist clearly knew what his mission and purpose was (verse 7). Luke 3:2 tells us the Holy Spirit led John the Baptist from the time he was in his mother’s womb to when he was called out of the wilderness to begin preaching near the Jordan (Luke 3:2). John knew his main purpose was to prepare the people for the coming of Jesus, so that people would believe in Jesus. John always knew He was not the light, but his mission was to announce or prepare the people for the arrival of Jesus.

John uses the Greek word phōs for light – which means light or brightness but also truth/knowledge, power of understanding; light=truth=Jesus

How did John the Baptist come to know his purpose so clearly? The birth of John was miraculous. Scripture reveals the following details about John the Baptist:

His father was Zechariah, a priest who served in the Temple (Luke 1:1)
His mother was Elizabeth, a relative of Mary, Jesus’ mother (Luke 1:36)
Zechariah and Elizabeth were never able to conceive (Luke 1:7)
John’s conception was prophesied by an angel. When Zechariah was performing his priestly duties in the Temple, he was visited by an angel. The angel announced that Elizabeth would conceive and his name would be John (Luke 1:11-16). The angel told John’s parents that John was to drink no wine or liquor.
He would be filled with the Holy Spirit even in his mother’s womb. (Luke 1: 15)
He lived in the wilderness and preaching that all should turn from their sin and be baptized (Mark 1:4)
His clothes were a camel hair tunic with a leather belt, and his food was locusts and wild honey (Mark 1:6)
He would go as a forerunner before Him (Jesus), to make ready a people prepared for the Lord (Luke 1:16-17).

Application Point

John the Baptist shows us that it is very possible to both know and accomplish your purpose . John knew that his mission was to point people to Jesus. John reflected the light of Jesus, similar to how the moon reflects the sun’s light. In the great commission Jesus asks us to do the same when He says, “Go and make disciples” Matthew 28:19-20.

As followers of Christ, we need to reflect the light, Jesus, to an unbelieving world. When all is said and done, what can be more important than telling others about Christ? What each person decides about Christ, will have direct impact on their eternity. When you have Christ, you have power to live abundantly now and you also receive eternal life with God. Without Christ, lives are impoverished and eternal futures will end in utter darkness, separated forever from God. Telling others about Jesus truly is a life or death matter.

⁹The true light that enlightens [enlightens=phótizó=to reveal] everyone, was coming into the world. ¹⁰He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. ¹¹He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him.

The Greek word for enlighten is phótizó and means to make evident, to reveal. Therefore, Jesus was the light that came to reveal very important truths. It will become evident, as we read through the gospel of John, that Jesus came to reveal truth about God, about ourselves, about life now and eternally.

John summarizes the life of Jesus is just two verses (10-11). Jesus came into the world that He Himself had created to bring truth to mankind, and was rejected – killed. This should make us tremble.

Application Point

This rejection of Christ by the Jewish people, should remind us of the wanderings in the desert (Exodus). While leading the Israelites out of Egypt and through the desert, God Himself appeared as a pillar of fire at night, and a pillar of cloud by day. God gave them manna EVERY day (minus the Sabbath day) for FORTY YEARS and they still refused to obey, believe, trust and follow. The rejection of Jesus shows us that human nature has not changed much since the Exodus, since the coming of Jesus. Even today, many will reject God, reject Christ, and the truth that His Word reveals.
Why should we be surprised by the rejection of truth by the Jews? Who hasn’t rejected the wisdom and truth of their parents? A parent can dream big dreams for their children by providing encouragement, education and financing and all that is necessary to help the plan take shape. But then, in the end, the child can reject these plans and forge his own way. Which one of us has not done this in some way, shape or form? We are all guilty of this and on some level, we are just like the Jews. We have rejected truth and gone our own way, many times.

¹¹He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. ¹²But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or the will of the flesh, or of the will of man, but of God.The Jews were God’s chosen people. This is what John is referring to when he says “his own”. If anyone should have recognized Him, it should have been the Jews. But scripture tells us that many did not accept Him. However, verse 12 tells us that some did receive Him. What does it mean to receive Jesus? Verse 12 provides the answer. To receive Jesus means to believe in Him.

But what exactly does it mean to believe in Jesus? It certainly is more than just believing that God came to earth in the flesh as Jesus. Even the demons believe this. So there must be more. Scripture reveals that believing in Jesus means:

to believe and agree with Jesus about ourselves – that we are sinners
to turn from our sin (repent)
to agree that Jesus is indeed God in the flesh
to believe that God offers us the gift of forgiveness and eternal life, through the sacrifice of Jesus and to accept this gift
to transfer trust from self to Christ alone

v12 But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or the will of the flesh, or of the will of man, but of God. Lastly, we are told that some did receive Him and believed Him. And to those people God gave them the power to become His children. When you have become children of God, you have become what Jesus calls ‘born again’. This scripture infers that the power of God is necessary to be born again. It is not entirely within the power of a human to believe in God. There appears to be a component of God’s power to believe, that enables our hearts and wills to believe. We will see this truth become more evident as we work our way through the gospel of John.

Summary Points

God has a purpose – It is comforting to see that God the Father has a concrete purpose for all of mankind. We see an intimate bending of God towards humanity through the sending of John the Baptist and Jesus. God desires relationship with us. It is both amazing and beautiful that John the Baptist followed his calling to prepare hearts to receive Jesus, and also that Jesus came to earth to show us what God is like in human form. God’s main purpose: that we would believe.
Your life has purpose – John the Baptist also shows us that it’s quite possible to be confident of your calling in life. Scripture tells us that John the Baptist was given the Holy Spirit while he was still in his mother’s womb and was guided by the Holy Spirit. If you are a believer, you too have the Holy Spirit within you. Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal your purposes and to provide guidance. He desires to lead and teach us. For a more thorough background of John the Baptist, https://www.gotquestions.org/life-John-Baptist.html
Our mission- in part, is to reflect the light of Jesus to an unbelieving world.
God understands you – If you ever wonder if God knows how you feel, remember that Jesus Himself, the God of the universe, was rejected by the very people that he created. Jesus experienced rejection firsthand. This truth should comfort us, should provide us with reassurance that Jesus understands the feelings and loneliness that comes from rejection. He understands our pain.
God gives us power to believe – Verse 12 reveals that there is an element of belief that comes from God Himself. He provides the power that is necessary for us to believe, to become His child. If you are struggling to believe, ask God to help you believe and to reveal His truth to you. He desires a relationship with you and He desires that you become one of His children. This is what it means to be ‘born again’. He will not reject you if you come to Him in earnest.

For more discussion on belief in Jesus and what it means to be born again, please visit https://www.gotquestions.org/born-again.html

John 1:14-18

¹⁴And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. ¹⁵John testified about Him and cried out, saying, “This was He of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ^[c]has a higher rank than I, for He existed before me.’” ¹⁶For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace. ¹⁷For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth ^[f]were realized through Jesus Christ. ¹⁸No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.

Observations

¹⁴And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory [glory=doxa=divine qualities; manifestations of God], glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. According to John, the “Word” (Jesus) came to earth to live with us as a human – in the flesh. Let that sink in for a moment. The God who created the universe, matter, space, time -everything, decided to become a human, so that He could live with us. He was divine as well as human. Jesus is the only God-man that ever walked the earth. That He would draw close to us, sinners, is amazingly beautiful and sobering at the same time. We needed saving. He willingly came to save us. Sobering.

While Jesus was on Earth, in the flesh, we were able to get a glimpse of what God is like. We were able to see His glory, His splendor. The Greek word for glory is doxa. Doxa means an especially divine quality, a manifestation of God, or splendor. By watching what Jesus did, and listening to what He said, we get a direct revelation of what God is really like. Hebrews 1 puts it beautifully, “He [Jesus] is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. ” In other words, Jesus is the exact mirror image of God Himself.

(John refers to Jesus as “the only begotten”. The Greek word for only begotten is monogenés and means ‘one-and-only’ of its kind or in simpler terms – unique. John is saying there was only one man on earth that was also God; this one of a kind God-man, is Jesus.)

John’s description of Jesus says that He was overflowing with grace and truth. What does this mean? To say that someone is filled with grace means they exude kindness, blessing, and favor. In regards to the Greek word for truth, alethia, means truth, but not merely truth as spoken, but of reality, as it relates to truth in the moral sphere, straightforwardness. So in effect, Jesus is the source of eternal truth, as it relates to all spheres – physical and spiritual truth.

¹⁵ John testified about Him and cried out, saying, “This was He of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ^[c]has a higher rank than I, for He existed before me.’”The gospels tell us that John was born approximately 6 months before Jesus, so John is older than Jesus at this time. When John says that Jesus existed before him, John is making a claim that Jesus is divine, that Jesus existed from long ago. John understood, or it was revealed to him through the Holy Spirit, that Jesus is God.

¹⁶For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace.

What does John mean when he says that have received ‘fullness’ and ‘grace upon grace’? The Greek word for fullness is plērōmatos, meaning a full complement, filling or completion. Therefore, Jesus gives us all that we need, all that is necessary.

¹⁷For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.

In the Old Testament, God gave the law (10 commandments, law of grain offerings, law of peace offerings, sacrificial laws, etc see Leviticus.) through Moses to the people of Israel. The purpose of the law was:

to reveal what God was like, to reveal His holy standard
to reveal the justice of God-they could not draw near unless an animal died in the place of the sinner
to reveal the inability of humankind to follow God’s laws
to ultimately reveal their need for a Messiah, for a Savior

The law revealed one main aspect of God’s nature ====justice. The atonement of Christ revealed another aspect of God’s nature===grace and truth (love, mercy, forgiveness)

Therefore, the New Testament does not mean that God has changed from being a more stern judge, rather, the New Testament adds another facet of who God is, in totality. He never changes. The Old Testament simply reflects different aspects of God’s nature than the New Testament. But both Old and New Testaments are required for a more complete understanding of who God is.

When we look at the cross – we see both of these aspects above. We see God’s justice – that sin requires death; and we also see the love of God – that He provided the sacrifice that was needed for the atonement of sin. The cross should make us pause. Sin is serious to a holy God. But God, in His great love for us, paid the debt that we owed. This is incredible.

¹⁸No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.

John uses the Greek word heōraken, which means not only the physical act of seeing, but also involves a mental discernment of what is seen. So what John is saying is that no one has seen and totally understood God. Even when Jesus came to earth, that although the bible says He is the exact imprint of God, the bible tells us that Jesus emptied Himself of his glory when He came to earth. What we see are the forms that represent God.

In the Old Testament during the Exodus, God revealed Himself as a pillar of fire at night, and a cloud during the day, to the Israelites. When they arrived at the base of Mount Sinai and God came down to meet with the people and with Moses, the people were absolutely terrified. Smoke, lightning, earthquake and darkness veiled the Almighty. The people begged Moses to meet with God. They wanted no part in experiencing God face to face.

No one can see God face to face, for His very presence would consume mere humans. Therefore, God, in His mercy, veils Himself so that we can see a form of Him and survive the experience. God is similar to a huge diamond containing many facets. We are allowed to see only a fraction of those facets, and therefore have an incomplete understanding of God. God gets to choose which of those facets He will reveal and how He reveals them to us. Right now, we know Him only in part. Jesus Christ gave allowed us to glimpse many more facets of this beautiful diamond. Now that Jesus Christ has come to earth and revealed Himself, we have a better understanding of what God is like….but we still do not know Him fully. Only when we die and meet Him face to face, will we have our the fullest understanding of who God really is.

Tag: john the baptist

John 1:6-13 John the Baptist

Observations

John 1:14-18 The Word Became Flesh

Observations