Matthew, Mark, Luke and John all cover a similar period of history, the first advent of the Lord Jesus Christ. However, Matthew emphasises the Lord Jesus from the standpoint of His kingship, he presents the Gospel of the King. Mark presents the Gospel of the servant. Luke presents the Gospel of the Son of Man, emphasising the humanity of Christ. John presents the Gospel of the Son of God, emphasising the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. Matthew talks about the coming of the promised saviour; Mark talks about the life of the powerful saviour; Luke talks about the grace of the perfect saviour; John talks about the possession of a personal saviour. John 20:31 gives the clue for the book.
In the first fourteen verses of the Gospel of John we have information regarding the deity of Christ. Then, in verse fourteen we will suddenly shift and go to the humanity of Christ with emphasis, therefore, on the reason for Christ becoming true humanity. When we get into the last three quarters of this chapter we will study a diary of four days in the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. But we do not begin with the humanity of Christ; we begin with the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ, and therefore in verses 1 & 2 the pre-existent one. This is actually coverage of the doctrine of the hypostatic union because Christ is undiminished deity; He has all of the divine names and all of the divine titles applied to Him. He is called God, the Mighty God, the great God, God over all, Jehovah, Lord, King of kings, and Lord of lords. He possesses all of the divine attributes. At the same time, after the virgin birth He becomes true humanity. So He is the unique person of the universe, He is God and He is Man in one person forever.
The human author of this book is John the son of Zebedee. It was written in Ephesus in about 90 AD. John did something that no one else has ever been able to do in history. He was able to break through the barriers of time and to move into eternity. He begins in a very simple way in the Greek and yet it is one of the most profound statements ever found anywhere in the Word of God. He begins with the simple phrase e)n a)rxh, which is translated in the KJV “In the beginning.” There is no definite article, and this actually means “in a beginning which was not a beginning,” and therefore in eternity. This is one of the biblical ways of describing something that goes beyond time. Here is the sentence that tells us that long before any creature existed, long before the universe existed, Jesus Christ our saviour actually existed as a member of the Godhead.
The next word is h)n, the imperfect tense of the absolute status quo verb e)imi. It means “in a beginning which was not a beginning.” In other words, “in eternity past” He always existed and there never was a time when He didn’t exist. So the imperfect tense of the absolute status quo verb indicates eternity and an eternally-existent one. Here is one who always existed and there never was a time when he didn’t exist.
There is another verb which we will find in this passage – ginomai. E)imi means absolute status quo; ginomai means to become something that you were not before. The best illustration of the difference between these two words is found in John 8:58 – “Before Abraham was [ginomai]” – before Abraham came into existence, “I am,” i.e. “I keep on existing eternally,” the imperfect tense of e)imi which is eternal existence in the past.
“was with God” – again, the same verb and the same form of the verb h)n.
Verse 2 – “The same was [kept on being] in the beginning with God.” In verse 4, “In him was [kept on existing] life” – same verb. In verse 9, “… was [kept on existing] the true Light” – same verb. Verse 10 – “He was [kept on existing] in the world.” And so time after time we have this same form throughout the book of John, and wherever you find it you see the imperfect tense of the verb for absolute status quo. The imperfect tense is linear aktionsart in past time. Linear aktionsart in past time plus the verb e)imi means to exist eternally. In other words, this verb “was” is saying in effect that Jesus Christ is God. The word “was” indicates eternal life, and anyone who pre-existed eternal life is God.
Then He is given a title – “the Word,” o( Logoj. This is the first title used for the Lord Jesus Christ as the eternally existent One. Logoj was a technical word in Greek philosophy, a term often used for infinity. It was used to indicate the Supreme Mover, the one who was behind everyone, the one who brings order into the human race. The word is used throughout the New Testament for the Lord Jesus Christ. Again in verse 14 He is called the Word. In Colossians 1:18 we have a phrase, “the Word of the cross.” The Greek says, “the Logoj of the cross.” The cross was the lowest principle in the Roman empire. The most disgraceful type of death that anyone could die was crucifixion. So the cross was the lowest and Logoj was the highest, and Jesus Christ is called the Logoj of the cross. In other words, the One who went to the cross was not only true humanity but He was also eternal God.
O( Logoj connotes four things:
The first principle behind the use of his Greek word is revelation. Jesus Christ is the outward, the visible expression of the world of the invisible. Jesus Christ is the revelation of God the Father. The substance, the essence of the Godhead is invisible but Jesus Christ it its manifestation. Cf. Hebrews 1:1-3. Jesus Christ is the only member of the Godhead who is ever revealed and as we understand Christ we understand the other members of the Godhead. The Father is specifically said to be invisible in John 6:46, as well as John 1:18; 1 Timothy 6:16; 1 John 4:18. So the first connotation of the word logoj is revelation. Jesus Christ is the revealed member of the Godhead but in order to see Him – we cannot see Him as God – He must become a man, and therefore He became a man. The Logoj is the visible member of the Godhead because He took upon Himself the form of man.
The second connotation of the word Logoj is intelligence. It goes back to the concept of expressing thought. In order to think you must have a vocabulary; you cannot think without a vocabulary, and therefore since logoj means “word” it means the organization of words into thought. It means to take a vocabulary and to develop from that vocabulary concepts and categories, and so on. The Lord Jesus Christ is the one who is omniscient and as the omniscient one logoj connotes this particular concept.
The third concept of logoj is order, and this conveys putting design and purpose into things. Jesus Christ is the designer of the dispensations, therefore the designer of history. He is the designer of certain aspects of the plan in which you find yourself. The very plan which He has provided is a plan of order and design.
The fourth concept is communication. The word “word” as it is translated means something which is actually communicated or disseminated. So words transmit information, transmit ideas and concepts; they are used as the expression and impartation of various types of knowledge, and Christ is the expressor of all Bible doctrine. That is why in 1 Corinthians 2:16 the Bible is called “the mind of Christ.”
Now we have the word logoj connecting the humanity of Christ of the first advent with the eternal second person of the Trinity. They are one and the same, and in this person we have undiminished deity and true humanity in one person forever. Jesus Christ is God and therefore different from the human race. He is different from any member of the human race in that He is God; He is different from God in that He is humanity, and therefore He is unique. He is different from other members of the Godhead; He is different from other members of the human race. And because of His resurrection, ascension and session He is infinitely superior to any member of the angelic creation.
“and the Word [Logoj] was with God” – the word “with” is the preposition proj plus the accusative case and it should be translated “face to face with.” The Logoj was face to face with God. In other words, He is just as much God as any other member of the Trinity, co-equal and co-existent.
“and the Word was God ” is not quite correct in the English. It should read “and God kept on being the Word” or “God was the Word.” Again, this is the imperfect tense, linear aktionsart in past time of the absolute status quo verb. In other words, Jesus Christ always will be God; there never will be a time when He isn’t God. This means that since He has all the characteristics of deity He cannot go to the cross and die for the sins of the world. He cannot die spiritually, which is the wages of sin, and He cannot die physically as God. God is sovereign and therefore is not subject to death, the death of the cross. God is eternal life and eternal life cannot die. God is omnipresence and omnipresence cannot reduce itself to one point – the cross. God is immutability and immutability cannot change its characteristics. Therefore as God He cannot die on the cross, so He must become a member of the human race. Therefore He was virgin born, minus an old sin nature, but having a human spirit and a human soul, indwelt in His humanity by the Holy Spirit, except for three hours on the cross. So the Logoj, then, refers to the fact that He is both God and He is man.
So we have in this verse three factors. John is taking us beyond time – e)n a)rxh takes us from time into eternity. And in eternity, what does John see there? The Logoj is the manifestation back in time of God. The Logoj is the second person of the Trinity and was always face to face with God because He is God, and God was always the Logoj. So the last two phrases emphasise that we are dealing with the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the subject of the Gospel of John. The story of His humanity will be seen but He will always be related to the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Verse 2 – to further emphasise this we go to His essence. “The same” is literally “the same one.” “The same one kept on existing in the beginning [in eternity] face to face with God.” The word “with” is proj plus the accusative again and it should be translated “face to face with God.” This emphasises His deity. Jesus Christ is God.
Verse 3 – He is the creator. “All things were made by him.” Now for the first time we have that contrasting verb, ginomai, which means to become. “All things” refers to all categories in general – the universe, mankind, the angels. All categories of creation were originally created by Him. “All things were made” – this is a constative aorist of ginomai which looks at creative activity as one event. They didn’t occur all at the same time. We have for example, the creation of the universe. Then we have the creation of the angels as they occupied the universe. Then, to resolve the angelic conflict, we have the creation of man; and one part of the universe, the earth, was restored so that man could occupy it. The aorist tense here gathers into one point of time every act of creation; therefore it is called a constative aorist. The verse should be translated, “For by him [through the instrumentality] all things came into existence.”
This brings us to the doctrine of creation: the Father planned it – 1 Corinthians 8:6; the Son created every original creation – Colossians 1:16; John 1:3; Hebrews 1:10. But whenever something is restored it is the Spirit who restores it, as per Genesis 1:2.
“and without him was not anything made that was made [in the past with the result that it is still here]” – “made” is an aorist tense; “was made” is a perfect tense, and it brings out a contrast. In other words, “anything made” – aorist tense, in a point of time when it was originally created; “that was made” is the perfect tense, indicating retrogression, progression in the development of things in life. So the perfect tense at the end of the verse brings out the fact that there had been some changes over what the Lord originally made.
Verse 4 – we are related to this One. There is a relationship between Jesus Christ and man – certain types of people. Jesus Christ has eternal life and God the Father found a way to give man the eternal life in Jesus Christ. It has to be done by way of the cross because of propitiation. Jesus Christ is eternal life – 1 John 5:11.When we believe in Christ we enter into union with Him and His life becomes our life.
“In him was life; and the life was the light of men.” The world is enshrouded in darkness; this is the devil’s world, he is the ruler of this world. Where does the light shine? The light shines where the light has always been. God is light – 1 John 1:4. So in eternity past there is all this light. John opens the hole, as it were, in heaven so that the light comes out to us – e)n a)rxh h)n o( logoj. So the Gospel of John is the gospel of light, light in the devil’s world.
Verse 5 – “And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.”
Verses 6-8, a witness concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. Actually, in the first chapter of John’s Gospel we have four pages out of the diary of John the Baptist, but before we get to the diary we have to meet the person concerning whom the diary is written. So we read something here immediately in verse 6. “There was a man.” There is nothing about his personality, his human qualifications, about the “secret to his success,” he is simply called “a man.” “There came into existence a man.” Immediately we know the principle: God uses people. All believers today are in full time Christian service. As a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ today you personally are in full time Christian service. God uses people to disseminate the gospel and this was the job of John the Baptist. He is not the light but he is a light bearer, just as every believer is a light bearer – Matthew 5:14,16; Ephesians 5:8. Jesus Christ Himself is the light.
“sent from God” – para means immediate source. In God’s plan God can take imperfect man, unstable man, man who has an old sin nature and who is oriented to cosmos diabolicus, oriented to the thinking of this world, to human viewpoint, and use him in His plan; “whose name was John” – this is about all the information we have, there is very little about him in this Gospel. There is in Luke and in Matthew but here there is a principle: it is not the man; it is the message. It isn’t his personality; it is the content of his message.
Verse 7 – “The same came for a witness.” This was his reason for living: he was a witness concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the reason, in part, for the believer remaining in phase two. The believer is His personal representative.
“to bear witness concerning the light” – John the Baptist had the responsibility of communicating information with regard to the Lord Jesus Christ. So his title was “witness,” his purpose it to bear witness, and the result is stated at the end of the verse, “that all men through him [Christ] might believe.” The word to believe is in the aorist tense and it indicates immediately what God does for us at the point of salvation. This is an aorist tense where you have a point of time divorced from time and perpetuated forever. This point of time is taken out of time and perpetuated. The believer is given at the point of faith in Christ 36 things which he will have forever.
Verse 8 -- John was simply out there preaching, he was the man with a message.
Verse 9 – “There was the true Light.” The word “was” means there kept on existing the true Light, and the true Light is the Lord Jesus Christ; “which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.” This is a very important phrase. If the true Light lights every man that comes into the world it means that every person who has ever lived can be saved potentially. There are several was in which people are lighted. A person who is born an idiot is automatically saved because he never reaches the age of accountability. A person who does before accountability is automatically saved. So this is included in the concept of “lighteth every man that cometh into the world.” Those who reach the age of accountability face the issue of free will. Positive signals are expressed by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; negative signals are expressed by the rejection of the Lord Jesus Christ as saviour.
Verse 10 – “He was in the world” is a reference to the incarnation of Christ; “and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not.” Why? The answer to that is found in Satan’s attempt to confuse human volition. There are five ways in which Satan is operating today to confuse the world. The first is by religion – Matthew 23. Religion reduces Christianity to a system of ethics, a system of morality, which it is not. Christianity is relationship whereby we are in union with Christ and the life of Christ becomes our life. It is a relationship whereby the Holy Spirit, when He controls our life, produces something on the inside which is far superior to any system of overt morality. John 3:1-18 exposes the confusion of the religious mind. 2 Corinthians 11:13,14 shows how Satan uses religion to confuse people. The second way Satan confuses is through rationalism – 2 Corinthians 4:3,4; Luke 8:12. The third is by deceit – 2 Corinthians 11:3; 2:11; Revelation 12:9; 20:3. A fourth way is through supernatural phenomena – 2 Thessalonians 2:8-12. He is in the healing business, the tongues business, and in the miracle business. The fifth way is by snares – 2 Timothy 2:26; 1 Timothy 3:7; Ephesians 4:27; 2 Corinthians 2:11. Satan has a tremendous number of systems which he uses to confuse the volition of mankind.
Verse 11 – Jesus Christ came specifically to Israel. “He came unto his own.” “His own” refers to Israel. He is the son of David and He comes to fulfil the Davidic covenant. The reason He came to Israel is two-fold. First of all, it was the dispensation of Israel and the Jewish nation had custodianship of the Word of God and was responsible for its dissemination. He came to them as the Messiah, the anointed one, as the son of David who would reign forever.
“and his own received him not” – generally He was rejected. The reason was religion. At this point the Jews were the most religious organization in the world. There were many exceptions, of course, but the religious crowd rejected Him. Religion as a system excludes the principle of grace under which He came in the plan of God. However, there were those in Israel who did receive Him and would very shortly become a part of His eternal kingdom.
Verse 12 – “But” is a conjunction of contrast, a contrast between the religious Jews of verse 11 and the grace Jews of verse 12; “as many as received him” – the word for “receive” means to receive in a non-meritorious manner. It means to receive a gift, a gift which you do not deserve, a gift for which you cannot work. It means to receive something from someone even though you are obnoxious. This means they cannot earn it or deserve it, it is the character of the giver that is in focus. The giver is God; the receiver is man. Receiving here means to receive the Son – by faith in Jesus Christ, by believing.
“to them he gave the power [authority] to become the sons of God” – in other words, they are born into the family of God; they are children of God. The family of God is the eternal family. God is eternal; His family is eternal. When you are born into His family you are born into an eternal family.
“to them that believe on his name” – faith is the absence of human merit; it is the only non-meritorious system of perception. Some did this in John’s day; there were literally thousands and thousands who did.
Verse 13 – “Which were born.” Here is that being born into the family of God, and it isn’t temporary, it is eternal. This is an aorist tense, born in a point of time and divorced from time and perpetuated forever. One you have been born into the family of God you are always in the family of God. Passive voice: the subject receives the action of the verb; you receive by grace this new birth.
“not of blood” means heredity. You are not born, in this case, with a set of genes. This is a birth which is minus the hereditary characteristics. You have instead a heritage from God, one which is incorruptible, undefiled, that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for those who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time.
“nor of the will of the flesh” – human good. There is no place in the new birth for human good. You were not born again by your own good works – Titus 3:5; Ephesians 2:8,9.
“nor of the will of man” – this has to do with human plans. Salvation is not a human plan; it is not the result of human thinking. The planning occurred in eternity past. The family of God is often called the kingdom of God. It is a race on earth and today those born into the family of God are called “church,” those born into the body of Christ. It is a spiritual kingdom composed of all people who personally believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no place in this kingdom for either human heredity or human good or human planning. All human viewpoint is excluded.
Verse 14 – the incarnation. “And the Word [Jesus Christ] was made flesh.” Literally, “the Word became flesh.” Up to this time we have had the verb e)imi in the imperfect tense, indicating the eternity of Christ. Now we have a word, ginomai, and it means to become something you were not before. Jesus Christ became flesh. This is an aorist tense and it refers to the point of time of the virgin birth.
“and dwelt amongst us” – the purpose of dwelling amongst us, the first advent, is to provide eternal salvation; “and we beheld his glory” – the glory we beheld is the glory of God. Wherever you find the word “glory” it generally refers to the essence of God. Jesus Christ has glory. Glory generally refers to some aspect of deity. Jesus Christ is the Light of the world and the Light, as it were, shines on the glory and reveals the glory. So what we know of the glory of God we know by seeing Jesus Christ. We have a better view of the glory of Jesus Christ than those who lived in the first century. They saw Him physically on earth but they did not understand the doctrine, the mind of Christ, that we have in the epistles. What makes the difference? Today we have a better view of the glory of God than they had because we have in it writing, in the Bible. We have doctrine and doctrine is the revelation of the glory of God – 1 Corinthians 2:16, “we have the mind of Christ.” Bible doctrine! It’s ours.
“the glory as of the only begotten of the Father” – “only begotten” is not quite correctly translated. It means “only born,” and it refers to the virgin birth, but it refers to the eternal God existing before the virgin birth. It goes back to “the Word became flesh,” the first part of the verse. He has a perfect glory, but this glory will not take Him to the cross because eternal life cannot die. He had to become a member of the human race in order to die for our sins. As God He cannot die; as the God-Man He could go to the cross, and on the cross it was His humanity that bore our sins. Here was someone unique, the Lord Jesus Christ, the God-Man; and the humanity actually solved our problem.
There are three characteristics of the eternal Son of God. He is called the only born. This has to do with His humanity coming into the world. Then He is said to be “full of grace and truth.” “Full of grace” has to do with His person. When Jesus Christ came into the world He came in full of grace. In eternity past God the Father came up with a plan – operation grace. The Father said, “I will do the work, I will do the providing.” So He had to provide, first of all, salvation. And salvation must be provided through a person, so the second person in eternity past said, “I will go to the cross.” The third person said, “I will reveal the cross; I will be the search light pointing to the cross, showing men that the only way of salvation is through the cross.” All of that was in eternity past, before the cross, so when the second person came into the world He was full of grace – grace is the plan of God, He was full of the plan of God. Grace is more than a modus operandi; grace is what He was thinking. “Full of grace” means to be full of Bible doctrine. So what sustained Him? What kept Him on the cross? Doctrine carried Him through, the same thing we have to carry us today: Bible doctrine.
The problem of the heralds should be brought in at this point. Since there are two advents of Jesus Christ there are two heralds. The herald for the first advent is John the Baptist. The herald for the Second Advent is Elijah, and along with Elijah, Moses as one of the two witnesses. This passage deals with John the Baptist.
There are two sections in the Gospel of John dealing with him, one here in chapter one and the other in chapter three. The four days of the diary are recorded, beginning in verse 19. Verses 19-28 is the first day of the diary; verses 29-34 is the second day; verses 35-42 is the third day; verses 43-51, the fourth day.
The provocation, verses 15-18. Verse 15 – “John bare witness concerning him [the Lord Jesus Christ]…” John is the herald of the Lord Jesus Christ “… and cried, saying.” “Cried” here doesn’t mean to cry here, it means to make a public speech. John spoke concerning the Lord Jesus Christ in a public speaking situation.
“This was he of whom I spake’ He that cometh after me is preferred before me; for he was before me.” The word to “prefer” and the word translated here “was” are the two words we have seen in contrast throughout this passage. “Preferred” is the perfect tense of the word ginomai which means to become; the word “was” is the imperfect tense of the verb e)imi which means absolute status quo. “He was preferred before me in the past with the result that he always will be preferred before me” – the pre-eminence of Jesus Christ. John the Baptist was a man who was totally oriented to the plan of God and the grace of God. He understood thoroughly that he never could or would earn or deserve anything. He was a man with absolutely no human status symbols. He did not have any of the things of this life that were considered important – money, human success, no education, no wife or family, etc. This man lived a very intense life and a very concentrated life which centred around the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. He believed that when God put him in a certain spot, from that spot he could glorify God and God would provide everything necessary. By birth he was from the tribe of Levi and from the family of Aaron, and could have claimed his spiritual rights through a legitimate priesthood. He refused to do so.
The perfect tense of ginomai, “he was preferred before me”; “for he was before me,” the imperfect tense of the verb e)imi, which means “he kept on existing before me, he always existed, there never was a time when he did not exist.” In other words, John the Baptist recognised the deity of Christ as well as His humanity, and in his message he recognised the uniqueness of the person of Christ. He emphasised that Jesus Christ was the God-Man.
His message is given in verse 16. “And of his fullness” – the word “fullness” simply means doctrine, the sum total of the attributes of Christ, the sum total of His thinking – Bible doctrine, 1 Corinthians 2:16.]
“have we all received” – “we all’ means those who were believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, those in the plan of God. And then we have a phrase which is most interesting – “grace for grace.” It is literally, “grace taking the place of grace.” The first “grace” is phase two grace, and the second time it occurs it is phase one grace. What he is saying is this. Jesus Christ received our sins on the cross, He was judged for our sins and He took our place. That is grace; God did all of the work. And so when we approach the cross, the plan of God, we simply believe in Jesus Christ, and faith is the absence of human merit. It is “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved” – Acts 16:31. Now in phase two there is more grace. So the first “grace” in the passage refers to the more grace of phase two. Just as God provided everything for salvation so God provides everything for time. From the point of salvation to the time that we depart from this life, either by resurrection or death, everything is provided for us. The Lord Jesus Christ is the key to this because the Lord Jesus Christ is the plan of God.
Verse 17 – “for the law was given by Moses …” recognising the greatness of Moses is a past dispensation and recognising the importance of Moses. The law refers to the early part of the Old Testament “… but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.” Grace is the plan of God in eternity past; truth is the doctrine which expresses it in time. God’s plan is declared to us in time through Bible doctrine. Doctrine is simply the delineation of His plan categorically so that is can be understood, absorbed and applied. When you know doctrine then you can actually utilise the grace of God. Grace means this plan has always existed; truth is simply its delineation through Bible doctrine. So the Lord Jesus Christ has come to announce His own plan. However, during His earthly ministry He will only outline the plan, the actual details of the plan will be given in the epistles. But even as all these details are collected, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2:16, the Bible is the mind of Christ.
There is a contrast here. The contrast is between Moses and Christ; the contrast is between the Old Testament scriptures – the Mosaic law specifically, and the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ to the announcement of the Church Age and the modus operandi of the Church. This anticipates John chapters 14-17 where Jesus Christ actually announces the Church Age. He gives an outline form of it announcing the principle of grace. So this is what is means by “full of truth,” He will announce the plan of the Church Age.
Verse 18 – Jesus Christ is going to be the centre of John’s message. He announces the fact that Christ is the revealer of God. “No man hath seen God at any time.” God is a spirit and this means He is invisible to man’s eye; He cannot be known by empirical knowledge, a meritorious system of perception which is based upon ability to observe. The basic principle for seeing God and understanding God begins at the cross – “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.” Faith is a non-meritorious perceptive system. So when it says here that no man has seen God at any time it means through rationalism and empiricism. This is amplified in 1 Corinthians 2:5-16.
“the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.” “In the bosom” is an idiom which simply means the same thing we have in John 1:1, the Logoj was face to face with God.” In other words, He co-existed with God the Father eternally. So this is the principle that Jesus Christ is the revealer of God. This is the one that John announces.
John’s message provoked the religious crowd which became very angry. Under religion man does the doing – human good, and God is supposed to bless man on the basis of what man does; man gets the credit. The religious crowd is interested in a system of works. They were up to their ears in good deeds. So in verses 19 –28 we have the first day of the diary.
Verse 19 – “And this is the record.” The word for “record” here is literally the “witness,” but it means “this is the diary.” We have four days now in the diary of John the Baptist, and in these four days we see Jesus Christ increasing and John the Baptist decreasing. Actually, John 3:30 is fulfilled in the rest of this chapter. So we now have the religious crowd who have been sent from Jerusalem to investigate John the Baptist as a result of his message outline of the previous verses. This delegation is made up of priests and Levites who are declared to be Pharisees in verse 24. They were sent by the Sanhedrin to discredit John the Baptist and to bring back a report on how they did it. When they came to talk to him they tried to trip him up in a very interesting way which is now recorded.
“Who art thou”? They haven’t asked him yet; they do that in the next phrase.
Verse 20 – “And he confessed, and denied not; but confessed, I am not the Christ.” This is a sort of a title as to what is going to happen. Verses 20-21 are simply a title, a sort of synopsis of what happens in the next paragraph. In the next paragraph the Levites and the priests who are Pharisees came from Jerusalem, and they came to investigate him and to ask him whom he was.
Verse 21 – we actually begin the study of this particular situation. “And they asked him, What then? Are you Elijah? And he said, I am not. Are you that prophet? And he said, No.” So actually, they quizzed him on three things. First of all they asked him outright if he was Christ, which is actually for the Hebrew Messiah, and he denied it. Then they asked him if he was Elijah who is, of course, the herald of the Second Advent. Then they said “that prophet.” The word “prophet” here is a very mysterious word and it is very easily explained by Deuteronomy 18:15,18. Moses kept talking about a prophet who would come. He was actually talking about the Lord Jesus Christ. Now they have asked John if he is the Messiah. When they asked him if he was the prophet they hoped that he would answer yes, and then they will say all right the prophet is Messiah, you claim you are not Messiah but you claim that you are the prophet; this means you are crazy. Therefore they would have discredited him because he would have been obviously inconsistent with his own remarks. However, he didn’t fall for that.
There was on other thing they had in mind. If he would say yes, I am Christ, or yes, I am the prophet, the Sanhedrin had another alternative. They could immediately try him and then they could execute him. They thought they had him either way they did it. They had set up a plan. They didn’t expect him to claim to be Elijah. In verse 19 there is a very simple phrase which says, “Who art thou?” This is much stronger in the Greek. When they came up to him they actually said, “You, who are you?” In other words, they were looking down their nose. And they expected him to fall apart. But now there is one other thing they had in mind. Get this man to get his eyes on himself, get him thinking about himself. If we are going to trip him up, break through here and get rid of him, let’s get him to think about himself a little bit. So their questioning followed a very complimentary principle which would appeal to his pride. But he doesn’t fall for this kind of thing. A grace man is always oriented. Inside he is a relaxed person. John is a relaxed individual and has no illusions about himself.
Verse 22 – they try again. They can’t go back and report a failure; they have to do something. They are probably astounded that they could not handle him. They thought they were going to go out and show this country bumpkin a thing or two but it didn’t work out that way.
“Then said they unto him, You boy, who are you?” They used that same tone with him again. “… that we may give an answer to them that sent us. What sayest thou of thyself?” This delegation has to go back with an answer and they admit it in their second interrogation. He could have said, “I am John the son of Zacharias the priest.” This is true; he was, and he should be the high priest. He should be in Jerusalem – Luke 1:7-13 tell us of his lineage. He is really the true high priest of Israel. He is John, the son of Zacharias. Or he could say, “I am a man sent from God” – John 1:6. This is true but he doesn’t say this. He could have said some of the things the Bible says about him, but he doesn’t say these things about himself. Why? He was aware of these things within the framework of the grace of God. But does he think of himself as being great? No, he knows that he is a man sent from God because of who and what God is, not because of who and what he is.
When a person is successful in the framework of the grace of God he is successful because of who and what God is, not because of who and what he is. And when a person has doctrine and is not successful, and is a grace person, God has a place for that person.
Verse 23 – he begins to give them an answer. His answer deals with a message, with crowds under the most unbelievable situation, with a modus operandi, and it deals with authority.
“I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness.” When he uses the word “voice” immediately he makes an issue of the message rather than the personality. He refuses to make an issue of his own personality. They may do so; they will do so, which later on will cause him to call them a generation of vipers. But when he says that he is a voice he is warning them of something. “I am a personality because I am a human being,” says John the Baptist, He had a very forceful personality, “but it isn’t my personality, it isn’t my eloquence, it is the content of the message.” The very first thing he says to this delegation is, “Look at my message, there is where the issue lies.” A voice gives a message. A voice connotes two things: a) a brain with a vocabulary. The better the vocabulary the better you can think; b) a brain with the ability to communicate. A voice is heard but not seen and the message is so important that the person and the personality are not seen. And finally, the word endures after the voice is silent. John anchored his whole life in doctrine which would exist long after he died.
The second factor says, “the voice of one crying in the wilderness.” The word for “wilderness” is actually desert. A desert is a place where there are no people. Why on earth would a man with a message go out into the desert? He proved that when a person has a brain which is filled with doctrine, and he has a commission from God to communicate what he has – teaching, then God can put him right in the middle of a desert and the He will take care of the rest. He is glad to be in the desert for this reason: God will provide. He is prepared; he has doctrine; he has the gift. God will change the minus to a plus, and that is exactly what happened. He didn’t go to Jerusalem where the crowds were. He went where the Lord wanted him to go. All he had to do was to be prepared with doctrine, and he was. Once he was prepared with doctrine the rest was up to the Lord. Consequently he went out into the desert and the people came to him. And why did God set it up this way? To test positive volition. There were a lot of people who were positive at God-consciousness and ready for this message. There also were a lot of people who were curious. So they had to get up and move out to the desert to hear this man speak.
The third concept is modus operandi. He is the voice of one crying in the desert. In the desert we also have the concept of separation. There is a clear separation. In Jerusalem is the religious headquarters. Out in the Jordan country, out in the desert, there is no religion. This is the perfect set-up for the communication of doctrine – no religion. The worst people in the world to deal with are religious people, legalistic people. They have to unlearn so much. When people go out into the desert they are entirely away from a religious atmosphere and therefore John is free to teach. He is relaxed in his teaching and he uses the grace approach. So when religion comes out he castigates it. He calls them vipers. The religious crowd goes back to their hang-out and John goes right on with the message. Separation! The message must be given in a place of separation. John the Baptist separated himself from religion. He would not have had a ministry in Jerusalem because by now Jerusalem is too religious, so he separates himself from religion completely and totally. Therefore God can fully bless his ministry.
Then he gives them a fourth answer which has to do with authority. He quotes now from Isaiah 40:3. His authority for his ministry is not the fact that he has graduated from one of their two theological seminaries. He is not a seminary graduate, he is simply basing his whole ministry on the absolute perfect authority -- the Word of God, “as saith the prophet Esaias.” His authority is the Word of God.
Now John is doing something that disturbs the religious crowd. He is actually baptising people. So in verse 24 they come back on him once more and they have a third interrogation on this first day.
Verse 25 – “Why do you baptise then?” They were saying, “You have no authority from us, no religious connection, you have not graduated from a seminary, you have never gone to school, have had no education, no training.” The only thing that John was doing was performing acts of baptism. Were they baptising? No. But remember that out by the brazen altar was also a brazen laver in which was water. Whenever the priest performed any kind of function before he went into the tabernacle he washed his hands and his feet at the brazen laver. Then he went into the tabernacle and later on into the temple. This was a ritual which taught rebound, that you cannot learn spiritual things unless you are in fellowship; but the ritual itself, the washing of the hands and the feet belonged to the priesthood. They had never performed baptism, but here was John converting the brazen laver into a ritual – a ritual authorised by God because Jesus Christ Himself was baptised a little later on. Now the water is taken out of the laver because the water is in the Jordan, and he is baptising people in the Jordan to show this is announcing that Jesus Christ is going to bring a new kingdom, a kingdom made up of priests. Jesus Christ is the high priest and there will be a kingdom of priests. This is another reason why John does not claim his priesthood. He is the forerunner, the herald of the new high priest after the order of Melchizedek, and everyone who believes in Christ is going to be in His regenerate kingdom and they will be a kingdom of priests, and so on. So there was a reason why John performed acts of baptism. Baptism as he performed it had never been accomplished before. Nowhere in the whole history of Israel had someone been taken to the Jordan River and immersed in it.
We know exactly where he was doing this, by the way. He was doing this at the spot where Joshua crossed the Jordan when the water was parted. While the water was parted and the ark stood on the riverbed Joshua had men pick up twelve rocks and take them out of the riverbed and stack them in a monument. Then he took twelve rocks on the shore and put them back in the riverbed. This speaks of current and retroactive positional truth. We are identified with Christ in His death so we have the rocks put into the river so that when the water went back it covered them. This is the place of death. The rocks, which were taken out, were put in Gilgal, the place of life, and that means current positional truth. Gilgal is the place of eternity, the circle [top circle], and is a picture of the fact that we as believers at the point of salvation enter into union with Christ. In the very spot that Joshua did that John performed his acts of baptism. He was doing the same thing that Joshua did. Joshua was taking rocks out and putting rocks in. John was substituting people for rocks, putting people in the water here and bringing them out again. So there is a relationship between the ministry of Joshua with the rocks and the ministry of John the Baptist with the people. So where does he get his authority? He gets his authority from the Word. Note verse 28 – “These things were done in Bethabara beyond Jordan.” Bethabara means “the place/house of the ford.” This is the place where the Jews crossed the Jordan.
Verse 26 – “John answered them, saying, I baptise with water.” Why should he baptise with water? Because he is teaching them the same lesson that Joshua taught at the same spot. The baptism of John was saying in effect, down with human good and up with divine good; down with legalism, up with grace. He goes on to explain that this is just a ritual, a ritual by which doctrine is taught.
“but there standeth one among you [back at Jerusalem really], whom ye know not” – “ye know not” here means “you will not believe Him” – negative volition, not just ignorance.
“whose shoe laces I am not worthy to untie” – He is so great that I am not worthy to even touch the laces on His sandals. Here is occupation with Christ.
Verse 28 – this is stated here by the Holy Spirit for a reason in day one of the diary: so that you can understand what John the Baptist understood. John the Baptist took believers and baptised them. He was stating the principle of the grace of God and the plan of God. In the plan of God there is no place for human good, there is only place for divine good. God provides the divine operating assets whereby divine good can be produced.
Verse 29, the second day of the diary. “The next day” means the next day consecutively. Between the words “coming unto him” and “saith” there is a gap. He sees Jesus coming to him [to John]. Jesus came for the purpose of being baptised but the Gospel of John does not mention the baptism. The reason for that is very simple. The Gospel of John is the Gospel of the Son of God; it emphasises the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. Only the synoptic gospels actually mention the baptism of Jesus. The water represents the will of God the Father which existed from eternity past, and immediately when Jesus went into the water He was saying, “I will do the will of the Father.” The water represents the will of the Father; He was willing to go to the cross and die for the sins of the world. This is the significance of the baptism of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus came to John the Baptist to be baptised and there was a conversation between them. All of that was omitted because it was not the objective of the fourth Gospel to delineate those things pertaining to His humanity. John emphasises the deity of Christ.
John’s Gospel is the only one that mentions anything about the dispensation of the Church. Jesus Christ had a two-fold ministry. In addition to announcing salvation He clarifies certain doctrinal issues with regard to the dispensation of Israel, all of which is emphasised in the synoptics. But when you come to the Gospel of John there is an emphasis on Jesus Christ as a prophet, and as a prophet He is the first person to declare the dispensation of the Church – chapters 14-17.
The gap is where the Lord Jesus was actually baptised, and after He came out of the water we read in Matthew 3:17 that the Spirit descended upon Him like a dove and a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” From that John knew that Jesus Christ was the Messiah, the God-Man, the unique person of the universe. Therefore, as Jesus Christ was walking out of the water and away there were many disciples gathered there. And John turned to the crowd there, and pointing to Jesus Christ he said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world.” This is the genitive of source here and it should be translated “the Lamb from God.” John was saying that the animal sacrifices of the Old Testament portrayed the cross where the sins of the world were poured out upon Christ. Every animal sacrifice in the Old Testament simply pointed to the cross. This would not occur for three more years but John recognised that this was the one about whom he had been speaking. So consequently the Lamb of God ties the cross into the Levitical sacrifices and indicates that Jesus Christ is the one who would spiritually die for our sins. Here is the fulfilment of the Levitical offerings. The Levitical offerings merely communicated the gospel. They communicated the gospel to people who could see even though they couldn’t read. They could understand the animal dying, and so on.
The word to “take away” is a present active participle of the verb a)irw which means to lift up, the bear, to carry. It does not mean to take away our sins, it means to lift up our sins and bear them. It means to pick up a burden. So Jesus Christ, as it were, picked up our sins and carried the burden of them. The “sin of the world” is, of course, unlimited atonement – 1 Corinthians 5:14,15,19; 1 Timothy 2:6; 4:10; Titus 2:11; Hebrews 2:9; 2 Peter 2:1; 1 John 2:2.
Verses 30-34, the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, John the Baptist has focused attention on the one who is the only saviour. John the Baptist is the herald of the first advent and in the second day of his diary this is exactly what he is doing.
Verse 30 – “This is he” is “This keeps on being the one of whom I have communicated.” John’s whole ministry dealt with the person of Christ. Now he sees the subject of his message face to face and he now calls attention to the crowd that this is the one.
“After me cometh a man” – this is what he has been telling the people. It is a reference to the Lord Jesus Christ. “ ... who is preferred before me.” The word “preferred” is ginomai which has to do with the humanity of Christ. The next verb is e)imi which has to do with the deity of Christ. “He came to pass [ginomai] before me,” – this is precedent. In other words, the humanity of Christ has precedence over any person who has ever lived. It also says at the end of the verse, “for he was before me,” and this is the verb e)imi in the imperfect tense, and it indicates His eternal existence. Once again we have the uniqueness of the person of Christ, He is the God-Man – “for he kept on existing before me.”
Verse 31 – “And I knew him not: but that he should be made manifest to Israel” – he didn’t know which person it would be [‘but now I know’], “therefore I am come baptising with water.” This explains why John was the first person who ever baptised and why baptism was not used in the Old Testament. The herald of the King was to keep on baptising believers until one came to him for baptism who did not need baptism, and whose baptism would be unique. So baptism was not only to portray the principle of the plan of God in grace – down with human good and up with divine good – but baptism of John was to find the person whom he had been announcing; to identify the person. He would keep on baptising until the Messiah came, and when He came he was to announce it. And that is what he has done. So day two of the diary is the day when the Messiah came to him personally for baptism.
Verse 32 – “John gave witness.” This is the aorist tense of a verb which means to witness. “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him.” What did John see when Jesus came out of the water? No one else saw it but John, and when he saw it he knew that this was the identification mark and that this was the God-Man, the Messiah.
Verse 33 – John is saying his baptism is a ritual baptism which involves water. This water was used to identify the Christ, the Messiah; but the Christ is going to have a real baptism. This real baptism is an actual identification. It will not occur until after the cross, resurrection and ascension. Ten days after His ascension the Holy Spirit will descend (Acts 2:3) on the believers gathered in Jerusalem. The Holy Spirit will descend on them just as the Holy Spirit descended on Christ at the Jordan River on the second day of John’s diary. And on that day He will take every one of those believers in the upper room and He will enter them into union with Christ, and that is the beginning of the Church Age. So here, then, is the real baptism. Jesus Himself, just before He ascended, said in Acts 1:5, “John truly baptised with water; but ye shall be baptised with the Holy Spirit not many days hence.” And Peter said after the Gentile Pentecost in Acts 11:15,16 that what happened in Acts 1:5 was fulfilled here.
“And I knew him not: but he that sent me to baptise with water, the same [God the Father] said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining in him, the same one [Christ] is he who baptises by means of the Holy Spirit[1].”
Verse 34 – “And I saw, and bare record that this keeps on being the Son of God.” Always was; always will be. That is the end of day two.
Verse 35 begins day three and goes through verse 42.
Verse 35 – “And again the next day after John stood” – the next day he is standing and preaching again -- “and two of his disciples.” The two of his disciples are Andrew and John. They are not mentioned at this point, they are mentioned later on in the context. Andrew is Peter’s brother and John is the writer of this Gospel who also has a brother named James. They are going to illustrate the principle of personal evangelism.
Verse 36 – “Behold the Lamb from God.” This is a repetition of his message without apologies.
Verse 37 – “and the two disciples heard him speak.” Jesus came back this next day to pick up two of John’s disciples, Andrew and John, the writer of this Gospel. As He left John said “Behold the Lamb from God,” and two people left the crowd and started to follow Jesus. And John the Baptist is a great man. He is delighted for these two. John understood that Jesus was the Lamb from God and he knew that if any of his flock left and went with Jesus they were in better hands.
Verse 38 – “What seek ye? They said unto him, Rabbi” – which means, “You have the authority,” one who teaches the Word of God authoritatively, and yet they haven’t heard Him speak yet. But John’s recommendation was all that was necessary. “(which is, being interpreted, Master).
“where dwellest thou?” Where can we find you? Idiomatically they said, “We want to be with you.”
Verse 39 – “Come and see.” He didn’t give them and address. “They came and saw where he dwelt, and abode with him that day: for it was about the tenth hour.” Who would know it was the tenth hour? John, who was writing this. And he never forgot that day. John always used Roman time; this was 10am. The synoptic Gospels use Jewish time.
Verse 40 – contact evangelism. “We have found the Messiah [Hebrew], which is, being interpreted [in the Greek], the Christ.”
Verse 41 -- He brought Peter to Jesus. “Thou art Simon the son of Jona: thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation, A Stone.” He is just going to be a little pebble. He is a fisherman; he knows that when you throw a pebble out in the water it drops out of sight. He said to Peter that he was just a little pebble that was going to drop out of sight. He meant that although it was going to take a long time He was going to straighten Peter and then build him up again. That is one of the greatest stories and manifestations of grace in the New Testament. Peter learned everything the hard way.
Verse 43 – begins the fourth and final day of the diary. Philip is going to teach is contact evangelism. He doesn’t know Nathanael but eventually he is going to contact Nathanael and bring him to the Lord.
Verse 45 – Andrew went to his brother whom he knew; Philip went to Nathanael in another city, a person whom he had not met before.
Verse 46 – Nathanael immediately has some doubts about this. Apparently he has studied the scriptures and he knows that the Messiah must come from Bethlehem, that He must be related to David. Philip says “Jesus of Nazareth” and this brings the question from Nathanael.
Verse 47 – “Behold an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.” In other words, here is an honest person.
Verse 48 – “How did you know me?” Jesus answered, “Before that Philip invited you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.”
Verse 49 – “Rabbi [you are the authority], thou art the Son of God: thou art the King of Israel.”
Verse 50-51 – Jesus mentions seeing this for one reason. When this man believed the angelic conflict went into gear, as it always does when a person believes.
[1] The word “Ghost”: When the King James Version was translated they picked scholars, not Christians. They were 50 professors of Greek and Hebrew from three schools: Oxford, Cambridge and Westminster. Two died, so 48 actually did it. There are a lot of words that are translated two different ways in the Bible; pneuma is one of them. The word means “spirit” because in the Greek language there is no such thing as a ghost. They don’t even have a word for “ghost.” The closest is an Attic Greek word which existed several centuries before and it means “shades,” but not even a ghost. But the Oxford men translated pneuma “spirit.” The Cambridge men translated it “ghost.” Ghost and Spirit are always the same word without exception throughout the entire New Testament.