Dale Partridge - John 1_19-28 - The Testimony of John the Baptist

00:00:00.000 Grace, mercy, and peace be with you, from God our Father, from the Holy Spirit, and from

00:00:11.920 the Lord Jesus Christ.

00:00:13.660 Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became for me a joy and the delight

00:00:18.200 of my heart.

00:00:19.460 And so, putting away all filthiness and rampant wickedness, receive now with meekness the

00:00:24.460 implanted word which is able to save your souls.

00:00:27.320 there's a fundamental question in the passage that pastor corbin just read for us

00:00:34.680 that we must answer it's a question of identity identity this is a question that has plagued the

00:00:43.940 post-modern world it's a question that might keep us up at night it's the question that your

00:00:51.540 computer is trying to answer when it asks you to check off little boxes with crosswalks or fire

00:00:56.180 hydrants. It is the question, who are you? Who are you? Who do people say that you are? Who do you

00:01:08.140 say that you are? The answer to this question is the testimony, the martyrdom, as Pastor Corbin

00:01:19.060 taught us last week, of John the Baptist. John the Baptist told Saint John, the author of the

00:01:28.600 gospel, who the disciple Jesus loved. He bore witness, and now John tells us.

00:01:38.840 And so, the Jews, in other words, as we're later told in verse 24, the Pharisees

00:01:44.480 had sent the priests and the Levites.

00:01:47.620 So we have here represented the entirety of the religious hierarchy of Israel

00:01:51.600 to ask this question, who are you?

00:01:57.120 Now usually I don't like to quote at length,

00:01:59.640 especially in the beginning of the sermon,

00:02:00.720 but I want to quote for you the Cambridge commentary on this

00:02:06.780 just to show you that even a relatively very liberal commentary gets this right.

00:02:14.480 It says,

00:02:44.480 almost always with this shade of meaning.

00:02:47.940 There you go.

00:02:49.280 Even Cambridge can see it.

00:02:51.860 And so John introduces us in the very beginning of his gospel

00:02:55.260 to the great haters of Christ

00:02:57.460 and in their rejection of him,

00:02:59.860 the great enemies and opposers of all mankind. 0.93

00:03:04.260 The Jews should have been holding down the fort as faithful stewards 0.99

00:03:08.100 until the coming of their master. 1.00

00:03:11.240 They should have been being a priest to the Gentiles. 0.90

00:03:14.480 But instead, at the first hint of a whiff of the true heir to the throne showing up, 0.94

00:03:19.120 they are on the attack, right out of the gate.

00:03:22.140 John calls them the sent ones. 0.90

00:03:24.340 They're sent by the Pharisees, though. 0.84

00:03:25.720 They're not sent by Christ. 1.00

00:03:27.240 They're counterfeit apostles sent by the Jews. 0.99

00:03:31.860 They're sent by the religious elite, 0.90

00:03:34.140 who don't want to go out to the wilderness where John is. 0.96

00:03:37.260 They stay hiding in Jerusalem. 1.00

00:03:39.280 And so, straight away, in our gospel, we have John's critique of the cowardly, snake-like Jews. 1.00

00:03:47.300 John is out in the wilderness, across the Jordan. 1.00

00:03:53.400 Bethany across the Jordan, notice verse 28. 0.86

00:03:56.040 Across from the promised land, a land which has become dark and re-inhabited by the demon giants of Canaan. 0.76

00:04:04.300 A land that actually needs to be reconquered now. 1.00

00:04:09.280 and these Jews, they come out of the city that is now basically a wilderness 0.99

00:04:16.180 to the relatively cleaner wilderness to ask, who are you, John? 0.87

00:04:23.560 It's the same question they're later going to ask Christ.

00:04:26.640 Who are you?

00:04:29.820 And so I might ask you, who are you?

00:04:35.440 Who do people think you are?

00:04:37.080 nice guy, solid dude

00:04:40.800 that's how we always

00:04:43.220 someone wants you to trust their friend

00:04:46.920 he's a solid dude

00:04:48.040 who are you?

00:04:51.160 are you a stay at home mom?

00:04:54.740 are you an electrician?

00:04:57.920 are you an influencer?

00:04:59.800 do you primarily define yourself

00:05:01.800 by your vocation or your hobbies?

00:05:04.140 is that how other people think of you?

00:05:06.440 What is your identity?

00:05:08.420 Can people tell?

00:05:11.520 At work, men, do people know that you are a serious Christian?

00:05:15.800 Or are you just kind of the socially awkward guy who doesn't really laugh at the crude jokes

00:05:20.000 and who doesn't really go in for all the partying?

00:05:25.560 John confesses in verse 20.

00:05:29.480 Sin? No, he doesn't confess sin.

00:05:31.500 He simply confesses the truth.

00:05:33.240 Confession is at its heart telling the truth

00:05:37.140 This is why we might say that as we recite the Apostles' Creed in our liturgy

00:05:41.180 That is confession, we're telling the truth

00:05:43.840 And John emphasizes the confession of the Baptists 0.95

00:05:48.300 He confessed, he didn't deny, he confessed, he says

00:05:51.700 There is zero ambiguity in the Baptists' answer 0.81

00:05:55.000 He says, I am not the Christ 1.00

00:05:57.040 as you can tell the Jews are on the lookout for the anointed one 0.96

00:06:03.900 listen for a minute for how St. Luke describes St. John's family

00:06:13.800 in the days of Herod the king of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah of the division of Abijah

00:06:20.520 and he had a wife from the daughters of Aaron and her name was Elizabeth

00:06:24.480 and they were both righteous before God

00:06:27.420 walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord

00:06:31.160 and I know that you guys know the rest of the story there

00:06:34.000 about the birth of John the Baptist

00:06:35.500 but my point is that the Baptist himself was of a priestly family

00:06:39.860 a righteous family

00:06:41.920 a law-keeping family

00:06:44.300 no doubt the miracle that attended his birth was well known

00:06:49.600 connected with the public ministry of Zacharias and the temple

00:06:52.880 but he doesn't overstep here

00:06:57.020 where he might have

00:07:00.040 he might have taken his shot

00:07:01.760 but he says I am not the Christ

00:07:06.300 and so in verse 21

00:07:09.920 the Jews are then cued for their chain of questions

00:07:13.140 who are you then? Elijah? the prophet?

00:07:18.860 who is the prophet?

00:07:20.960 We might think it would be Elijah, but he was just mentioned, so it's not him.

00:07:24.820 The prophet would have been the Moses-like figure from Deuteronomy chapter 18.

00:07:31.940 Remember, the Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me, Moses said, from among you, from your fellow Israelites.

00:07:40.600 You must listen to him.

00:07:43.100 This is the prophet that they were expecting, and rightly so. 1.00

00:07:47.680 The prophet would have been a second Moses 1.00

00:07:50.820 A Joshua, if you will 0.70

00:07:53.240 A man who would stand as the successor to the great lawgiver himself

00:07:59.320 The Essene community at Qumran actually expected three messianic figures

00:08:06.820 They expected a prophet, a priestly messiah, and a royal Davidic messiah

00:08:13.700 And so, John the Baptist, he is out there toward the Essene wilderness, and so it kind of makes sense that they would be curious.

00:08:21.140 Are you one of those guys, John? One of those three?

00:08:26.780 But now here's the big exegetical puzzle of the passage.

00:08:31.160 Why does John not admit to being Elijah?

00:08:33.700 Behold Malachi says I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes and he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction. 0.78

00:08:55.140 Jesus says later on that for those who have ears to hear, John is Elijah 0.79

00:09:03.000 Matthew 11, from the days of John the Baptist until now, Jesus says

00:09:08.620 The kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force

00:09:12.780 For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John 0.60

00:09:16.300 And if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah, which is to come

00:09:22.680 And again, in chapter 17, Christ says,

00:09:25.120 But I tell you that Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him,

00:09:30.500 but did to him whatever they pleased.

00:09:33.340 So also the Son of Man will certainly suffer at their hands.

00:09:37.600 And then Matthew gives us this parenthetical,

00:09:40.080 Then the disciples understood that he was speaking to them of John the Baptist.

00:09:47.800 Elijah is, after all, alive at this time, is he not?

00:09:51.680 He was caught up into heaven by the fire chariot of God.

00:09:55.240 He is not dead. 0.91

00:09:56.700 Why shouldn't John be Elijah?

00:09:59.520 Is St. John contradicting St. Matthew?

00:10:03.600 An inconsistency in scripture.

00:10:05.800 We found it.

00:10:07.200 We've destroyed inerrancy.

00:10:10.240 How do we reconcile this?

00:10:15.140 Maybe it's just that John's not literally Elijah. 1.00

00:10:18.180 You know, the Jews, they all want literal fire and wrath to overthrow Rome. 1.00

00:10:24.940 If Elijah can throw down lightning fire upon the altar of Yahweh, 1.00

00:10:28.760 he can certainly set fire to a few Roman legions, can't he?

00:10:34.400 Maybe the Baptist is just saying, hey, I'm not that sort of Elijah.

00:10:37.380 I'm like a nicer, gentler type.

00:10:41.900 Luke says that the Baptist comes in the spirit and power of Elijah in Luke 1.

00:10:48.180 So perhaps the Baptist denies because he merely fulfills the role promised.

00:10:54.740 He's not actually Elijah.

00:10:56.200 Maybe that's what he's trying to say.

00:10:59.400 Or maybe the Baptist is simply filled with humility.

00:11:05.120 The strap of his sandal, he says, I am unworthy to untie.

00:11:08.760 Verse 27.

00:11:11.880 John is humble indeed. 0.65

00:11:13.540 perhaps Moses is the humblest

00:11:17.800 but John is certainly up there 0.95

00:11:19.180 he says he must increase

00:11:22.320 I must decrease

00:11:24.240 but even more important

00:11:27.900 than his humility here

00:11:29.460 is something we might not catch

00:11:31.960 he needs two witnesses

00:11:34.760 John the Baptist will not

00:11:39.800 and cannot bear witness to himself

00:11:42.080 and so our Lord Jesus Christ

00:11:46.100 becomes the second greater witness

00:11:48.880 as to who John the Baptist is

00:11:52.420 even Jesus won't testify about himself

00:11:56.380 he says the father also testifies

00:11:59.000 and so the humility of both our Lord and the Baptist

00:12:02.940 is shown in their refusal to self-identify

00:12:06.500 they refuse to self-identify

00:12:10.400 which if you think about it, we could take a lesson from in our age.

00:12:15.040 We are all about self-identification

00:12:17.620 which is ultimately an extremely prideful

00:12:22.180 position. The Baptist is identified by

00:12:26.180 the witness of Jesus and Jesus is identified by the witness

00:12:30.180 of the Father. This is my beloved Son in whom

00:12:34.440 I am well pleased. Listen to him, the Father says.

00:12:37.840 and then the son turns

00:12:40.460 and identifies the Baptist.

00:12:49.320 According to the law

00:12:50.560 of Moses,

00:12:52.900 the law of God,

00:12:54.540 if a man died childless,

00:12:57.120 his brother,

00:12:58.260 or the next of kin,

00:12:59.580 was legally obligated

00:13:00.860 to marry his widow

00:13:01.840 and raise up for his brother

00:13:04.020 a family,

00:13:05.800 continuing on the family line.

00:13:07.840 If he refused his obligation, if he refused his duty, a public ceremony called Halitza took place,

00:13:15.060 in which the widow of the dead man would remove the sandal off of the man that refused his duty.

00:13:21.260 She would spit in his face and declare that he refused to build up his brother's house.

00:13:28.680 And that man's family would thereafter be known as basically the house of the unsandaled one.

00:13:35.180 That man in his refusal to do his duty 0.82

00:13:42.820 Would be signifying then

00:13:44.560 That he forfeited his marital and property rights

00:13:48.060 This is what's happening in the story of Ruth

00:13:50.680 If you remember

00:13:51.360 When Ruth's close relative refuses to act

00:13:55.040 As a redemptor, a redeemer

00:13:58.600 He removed his sandal and handed it to Boaz

00:14:01.900 This transferred the legal right of redemption and marriage and the property over to Boaz

00:14:10.080 When John says that he is unworthy to untie the sandal of our Lord

00:14:17.860 He is not only speaking in humility

00:14:21.240 Although he certainly is

00:14:23.600 Untying, taking off a sandal, washing the feet

00:14:26.900 As our Lord will show us later on in this gospel

00:14:29.300 is the most menial of the servant's tasks.

00:14:33.780 The lowest servant of the house will do this job.

00:14:37.480 But John is also speaking in a legal, messianic sense.

00:14:42.380 He's saying, I am not the redeemer.

00:14:45.340 I have no legal right to untie his sandal

00:14:48.460 and claim the authority for myself.

00:14:52.960 John explicitly affirms this a few chapters later

00:14:55.720 in John 3 when he says,

00:14:57.380 the one who has the bride is the bridegroom.

00:15:01.200 The friend of the bridegroom who stands and hears him

00:15:04.360 rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice.

00:15:07.660 Therefore, this joy of mine is now complete.

00:15:10.300 He must increase, I must decrease.

00:15:13.620 So Jesus is the ultimate bridegroom, of course.

00:15:16.860 He wears the sandal of authority. 0.54

00:15:20.600 Israel, true Israel, that is, is his bride.

00:15:23.880 and John refuses to usurp that redemptive right.

00:15:29.400 Even though he had a lot of the credentials to take a shot at at least some of the aspects of the Messianic title,

00:15:37.460 he certainly had the priestly and prophetic aspects.

00:15:39.640 If he had claimed to be a someone, a lot of people would have believed him.

00:15:44.500 He was popular, right?

00:15:46.160 Everyone was coming to be baptized by him.

00:15:49.080 He had a following.

00:15:50.560 Most likely, St. John himself was following John the Baptist and was there as one of his disciples.

00:15:56.380 That's why we have such details of the eyewitness account here in John's Gospel.

00:16:01.820 But the Baptist refuses to unlawfully seize the throne and take the bride,

00:16:08.020 like Ham did with Noah's wife, or like Absalom did with the concubines of David. 0.82

00:16:14.020 John instead is the faithful under-shepherd 0.90

00:16:17.780 Who doesn't touch his master's bride 0.63

00:16:20.280 He is the best man, not the groom

00:16:24.320 He is the cousin of Jesus

00:16:29.780 But it's his loyalty and devotion to his Lord

00:16:33.160 Which is why he is called the greatest of those born of women

00:16:37.260 And if John is the climax

00:16:43.440 of the Old Testament prophets

00:16:46.220 in other words Elijah

00:16:47.220 then Jesus is the miracle

00:16:50.240 working Elisha

00:16:51.460 who receives a double portion

00:16:53.660 of Elijah's spirit

00:16:55.320 and he's plowing with a yoke

00:16:58.320 of 12 oxen

00:16:59.240 and he's raising the dead

00:17:01.140 and he's multiplying loaves

00:17:03.080 and he's giving life

00:17:04.380 even in his death

00:17:05.740 but I'd like for you to consider

00:17:09.080 the connections between John and Elijah

00:17:10.840 Both of them have hairy garments, leather belts, the instantly recognizable garb of a prophet in that day, camel's hair. 0.99

00:17:28.500 Nonetheless, we should be expecting wedding bells then.

00:17:32.160 both are supernaturally sustained

00:17:36.280 in their wilderness asceticism

00:17:38.900 by bread and meat brought by ravens

00:17:41.460 or by locusts and wild honey

00:17:43.080 they have bread to eat that we know not of

00:17:46.360 the wilderness is actually sustaining them

00:17:48.840 instead of killing them

00:17:49.820 and we start to see a foretaste 0.94

00:17:52.760 of the end of the wilderness

00:17:54.560 they are both out in the caves

00:17:57.920 and wilderness in the desert of Judea 0.65

00:18:00.460 Elijah confronts Ahab and Jezebel for their wickedness 0.96

00:18:05.720 John the Baptist confronts Herod and Herodias for theirs 0.98

00:18:09.740 Both are preaching repentance and the discarding of idols 0.92

00:18:13.700 In preparation for the salvation of Yahweh that is coming

00:18:17.460 And they both pave the way for their greater successors 0.97

00:18:21.300 The John-Jesus relationship not only maps onto the Elijah-Elisha relationship

00:18:31.620 But also onto the Moses-Joshua relationship 0.75

00:18:35.600 To tie it full circle 0.93

00:18:36.940 The Law and the Prophets

00:18:39.060 Moses also confronts the evil king

00:18:41.820 He has spent 40 years in the wilderness

00:18:45.660 He calls down plagues on the land

00:18:49.000 and is miraculously fed by God in the Sinaitic wilderness.

00:18:54.460 But if we're really to see the pattern, the connections here,

00:18:57.080 we have to consider the heirs, the successors to these three,

00:19:01.320 specifically as it relates to the Jordan River.

00:19:05.500 Joshua walks across the Jordan River on dry ground

00:19:09.060 in the wake of Moses to conquer Jericho.

00:19:13.280 Elisha walks back across the Jordan on dry ground

00:19:16.860 after Elijah is taken up, and then he goes on to make death water fit to drink for the men.

00:19:24.240 And Jesus turns the chaotic death waters of the Jordan into rivers of life in his Jordan baptism.

00:19:32.660 All these men have an enhanced spirit of the spirit of their forerunners,

00:19:38.400 and all of these wilderness prophets lay the groundwork for their successors to come,

00:19:44.620 to come and conquer and cleanse the land.

00:19:48.560 And that is exactly what Jesus is going to do.

00:19:55.700 What say you, they ask, verse 22.

00:19:59.340 We need to give an answer.

00:20:01.760 We need to categorize you, John.

00:20:07.680 Do you fit neatly into one box?

00:20:09.960 Or do you have the ability to make your own tribe angry or upset?

00:20:21.020 Are you a Republican to the core?

00:20:24.860 I'm MAGA.

00:20:27.480 I'm a Calvinist.

00:20:29.360 I'm Anglican.

00:20:30.980 That is who I am.

00:20:33.860 Can you see the problems with your own tribe?

00:20:37.440 Whose side are you on?

00:20:39.720 Neither? Wait, are you with us or are you with our enemies?

00:20:46.520 Wait, you can be both for us and against us at the same time?

00:20:51.840 That is the job of a pastor, by the way, to be both for you and challenging you at the same time.

00:21:00.880 But what then? We need to give an answer, they say.

00:21:05.280 John says, I'm a voice.

00:21:08.600 Just a voice.

00:21:09.720 I am the one leveling the way of the Lord

00:21:14.600 a few of you have been to my house in Prescott

00:21:20.460 we're still moving in up the road

00:21:22.500 if you've been to my house you know how bad my driveway is

00:21:26.120 it's like passable in my car

00:21:29.480 I can still drive it but it's all rutted out by the rain

00:21:32.060 I need to get it fixed

00:21:33.360 the driveway is not going to become straight

00:21:39.360 It's still going to wind through the woods, take it to my house.

00:21:44.260 But I need to fix all the ruts, right, so the car doesn't bottom out.

00:21:49.500 This is what John's doing.

00:21:52.000 He's making the way of the Lord level.

00:21:58.340 Is this way level?

00:22:00.940 Is the way to Yahweh?

00:22:02.940 Is the way to the messianic salvation level?

00:22:05.460 Is it straight? 0.99

00:22:07.340 Or is it gay? 0.95

00:22:08.900 Amos sees the Lord standing by the temple with a plumb line. 0.95

00:22:16.000 Now, a lot of us don't use plumb lines.

00:22:17.560 You may not know what that is.

00:22:18.320 It's just simply a line, a string with a weight on the bottom.

00:22:21.200 You put it on this side of the wall and then on that side of the wall,

00:22:23.320 and you can see if the wall is standing straight up.

00:22:26.520 You know, we might be more familiar with a carpenter's level.

00:22:29.680 Right?

00:22:29.920 Same idea.

00:22:31.680 Is this in line?

00:22:33.200 Is it straight?

00:22:34.220 I like to do a little bit of woodworking, you know.

00:22:37.400 And you do everything right.

00:22:38.720 You know, you take all your measurements, you square it up, you measure three times, you cut once, and you think it's good,

00:22:44.220 and then you hold the carpentry level up to the boy's bunk bed when I'm done.

00:22:47.620 It's like, it's quite, it's not straight. 0.98

00:22:50.580 It's just gay bunk bed. 0.99

00:22:54.080 Isaiah 28 says, I will make justice the measuring line and righteousness the Mason's level. 0.99

00:23:03.440 And so the Lord comes.

00:23:05.380 He is coming.

00:23:06.160 He has always been coming with a leveling line.

00:23:08.720 to inspect the fruit of the temple.

00:23:11.100 This is what he's eventually going to do as he cleanses the temple

00:23:14.780 because he's going to find it not level, not straight.

00:23:19.940 The straight way would have been a comfort to the people,

00:23:23.400 would have been for the people, 0.55

00:23:24.920 but the religious elite class has twisted it beyond all recognition.

00:23:29.560 Isaiah says, comfort, comfort my people, says your God.

00:23:33.560 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and cry to her that her warfare has ended.

00:23:38.060 that her iniquity is pardoned and that she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her

00:23:43.840 sins. A voice cries. Here's where the Baptist gets his quote. In the wilderness, prepare the way of

00:23:51.540 the Lord. Make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up.

00:23:57.340 Every mountain shall be made low. The uneven ground shall become level and the rough places

00:24:03.360 a plain, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together,

00:24:10.560 for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

00:24:15.180 This is, in its original context, a message of comfort to Jewish exiles in Babylon, promising

00:24:23.200 a highway back, a way back to Jerusalem from Babylon.

00:24:26.620 but at this point in our story

00:24:30.180 as John makes clear in the book of Revelation

00:24:32.820 Jerusalem herself has become Babylon 0.99

00:24:35.480 it's crooked, it's full of potholes 0.99

00:24:39.200 it is wicked and evil

00:24:42.400 there are demons in the corners of the temple

00:24:46.240 it is not the straight and narrow way

00:24:48.900 which doesn't surprise us

00:24:53.600 but it really would have surprised them in that context

00:24:56.880 Especially because here we have people sent by the Pharisees.

00:25:01.660 Levite scribes sent by the Pharisees, verse 24.

00:25:05.380 The religiously, theologically conservative Pharisees.

00:25:09.880 The nationalists.

00:25:11.980 The great opposers of the globalism of the Roman Empire. 0.91

00:25:15.440 The followers of the law, the Pharisees.

00:25:17.560 They're not the liberal Sadducees.

00:25:19.560 They're conservative.

00:25:21.140 And we should be reminded here then that there is no hope for us

00:25:24.280 in mere theological conservatism

00:25:27.300 or mere Republican conservatism.

00:25:31.340 The Pharisees are conservatives, but they hate Christ. 0.64

00:25:35.480 We should be reminded then that there is no hope for us

00:25:39.060 ultimately in nationalism.

00:25:41.040 We're all nationalists here, 0.88

00:25:43.020 but without the Christian modifier, there is no hope.

00:25:46.660 The Pharisees were nationalists, but they opposed Christ. 0.58

00:25:50.680 We should be reminded as well that there's no hope

00:25:52.760 ultimately in simply the law.

00:25:55.020 We love the law.

00:25:56.320 The Pharisees were legal sticklers.

00:25:58.500 But they hated Christ.

00:26:04.240 And so they continue their line of questioning.

00:26:06.760 Verse 25.

00:26:08.100 Then why are you baptizing?

00:26:10.280 If you're not any of these people,

00:26:12.140 what do you think you're doing, John?

00:26:14.800 How dare you imply by your baptism

00:26:17.620 that we are unclean?

00:26:24.280 We have here religious credentialism at its finest.

00:26:32.060 And the question of identity, which stands at the heart of this passage, comes around full circle.

00:26:38.620 Who are you?

00:26:40.520 Just who do you think you are, John?

00:26:43.780 Have you studied under the right rabbis?

00:26:46.960 Have you gone to the right schools?

00:26:49.060 Do you have the alphabet soup of degrees in your signature block following your name, or at least an MDiv?

00:26:59.840 Did you by any chance maybe study under Gamaliel, or any other reputable, reformed academic figure, John?

00:27:08.200 Are you even a member of G3?

00:27:10.120 all of you by now know that you are about to be covenanting with a ministry

00:27:18.540 whose credentials will be constantly under attack by the religious bureaucracy out there

00:27:26.500 and it's not because they care about credentials per se

00:27:31.200 there are many uncredentialed pastors that they will either ignore or even welcome

00:27:38.020 The reason they care is because, like John the Baptist, they hate what he said.

00:27:47.500 They hate what he implies.

00:27:51.080 They hate him because he actually demands repentance.

00:27:57.800 They hate him because his ministry, like Christ's, is an ongoing repudiation and denunciation of their religious system.

00:28:06.400 which looks really good on the outside

00:28:09.900 but inside is full of dead men's bones. 0.85

00:28:16.560 Listen to what St. Luke says about the Baptists. 0.64

00:28:19.500 He will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God

00:28:24.240 and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah

00:28:28.300 to turn the hearts of fathers to the children

00:28:31.060 and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just

00:28:33.920 to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.

00:28:43.040 They hate him because he's not attacking them out there.

00:28:50.300 He's attacking us in here.

00:28:53.420 He's attacking our tribe.

00:28:55.820 He's going after the good old boy club. 0.99

00:28:58.800 He's attacking our women. 0.90

00:29:01.060 He's attacking our children.

00:29:03.040 He's going after our sacred cows.

00:29:06.560 He's not preaching against the Romans.

00:29:09.740 Look, there's plenty to preach against with the Romans.

00:29:12.900 But he's preaching against us.

00:29:15.340 Us!

00:29:16.160 How dare he?

00:29:17.800 They hate him because he's a servant of Christ.

00:29:20.240 And he's going to be saying the same thing that Christ says.

00:29:23.320 And Christ told you that they hated me, so they're going to hate you.

00:29:27.300 They will hate the servants of Christ.

00:29:29.540 And they always have, and they always will. 0.94

00:29:32.320 As credentialed Ahab told uncredentialed Elijah, he asked, 0.91

00:29:38.060 Is it you, you troubler of Israel? 0.82

00:29:40.160 I remember. 0.99

00:29:41.700 And Elijah says, I have not troubled Israel, but you and your father's house, 0.99

00:29:49.260 because you have forsaken the commandments of the Lord and have followed the Baals. 0.81

00:29:53.640 now look we affirm the good order and excellence of laying hands in ordination

00:30:05.820 and apostolic succession if you are a pastor you must be ordained by an ordained man

00:30:13.480 and if you can trace your ordination back to the apostles themselves that's very good

00:30:19.120 We would all be in favor of bishops, local, hierarchical, ecclesial accountability.

00:30:26.000 All very good.

00:30:27.480 But this is not everything.

00:30:30.920 This is not the most important thing, even.

00:30:33.860 If the religious establishment is corrupt, the call to repentance, then, has to come from outside the system.

00:30:41.800 From the office of the prophet, who is not a part of the class of the religious elite.

00:30:49.120 It comes from Elijah in the desert, not Obadiah in the king's palace, although they both have their place. 0.66

00:30:59.600 Ultimately, the Jews make a fatal theological error in splitting the offices of Elijah and Moses and the Messiah. 0.87

00:31:10.080 They're pretty much dispensational in their reading of the Old Testament. 0.94

00:31:14.180 In reality, Moses equals Elijah equals John

00:31:21.340 And Joshua equals Elisha equals Christ 0.88

00:31:26.360 Just like the Egyptian plagues is another Babylonian exile 0.96

00:31:31.220 Which is another cleansing of the temple

00:31:33.780 Which is AD 70, a day of the Lord

00:31:38.660 Which is the final coming of Christ

00:31:41.700 these things are all covenantally one event 1.00

00:31:46.700 and the Jews should have recognized the pattern by now 1.00

00:31:50.320 the Baptist was the final warning before judgment fell

00:31:53.940 but they're too concerned about theological minutia 0.90

00:31:57.940 and credentialism to notice

00:31:59.640 besides which of the prophets did their fathers not kill

00:32:03.640 these connections will be made explicit

00:32:08.840 in the transfiguration of our Lord.

00:32:13.700 In the Mount of Transfiguration,

00:32:15.700 we have Moses, Elijah, Christ,

00:32:19.940 and Deuteronomy 18 re-echoed.

00:32:23.540 You must listen to him.

00:32:28.380 If you'll notice,

00:32:29.520 John never answers their question directly,

00:32:32.220 much like Jesus doesn't answer

00:32:35.640 many of their questions directly.

00:32:38.140 Instead, he says in verse 26, among you stands someone you don't know.

00:32:44.860 He's right there. 1.00

00:32:46.840 Calvin says he indirectly charges them with stupidity. 1.00

00:32:51.980 In other words, you should know better. 1.00

00:32:54.060 You guys are the teachers of Israel, and yet you don't know these things.

00:32:57.020 He's right there in your midst.

00:33:00.060 He's standing right there.

00:33:02.800 As he'll say later on, he's standing there knocking.

00:33:07.140 Jesus says, I stand at the door and knock.

00:33:12.680 And this, contrary to the way most evangelicals will preach it,

00:33:16.240 is not kind, gentle Jesus begging you to please just let me into your heart.

00:33:22.600 No.

00:33:24.620 This is Jesus coming to inspect the temple, coming to inspect your life.

00:33:30.340 He stands at the door and knocks, and he expects you to open it to him.

00:33:34.660 and he expects to find faithful servants there.

00:33:39.120 This is not a kind and gentle knock.

00:33:41.740 It's a knocking of reckoning, and he is coming quickly.

00:33:45.680 He's about to throw the gate wide open.

00:33:51.200 The Baptist at this point has already seen the Spirit of God

00:33:54.300 descend upon Jesus at his baptism,

00:33:56.420 and he knows that the time is short.

00:33:59.560 And so he offers the inhabitants of Jerusalem 0.96

00:34:02.180 a way out of their sin and their misery and their corruption and wickedness. 0.99

00:34:07.500 He offers confession and repentance at his baptism.

00:34:11.160 He offers white robes and trimmed wicks.

00:34:15.960 Jesus is coming, and he offers the people a way to be able to say,

00:34:20.840 actually in good conscience,

00:34:22.620 Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

00:34:26.680 Instead of, you know, crucify him.

00:34:29.920 His blood be upon us and our children.

00:34:32.180 but of course most of the Pharisees

00:34:37.200 will reject the baptism of John

00:34:38.740 as we learn in Luke 7 0.99

00:34:41.280 and they will crucify our Lord 0.54

00:34:43.640 there are many baptisms in scripture

00:34:49.080 and in one way they're all connected

00:34:51.860 in other ways

00:34:54.300 these washings are all different

00:34:56.540 John's baptism is not

00:34:59.840 the Christian baptism, per se, the baptism of the Spirit,

00:35:05.080 but a baptism of entry, or really re-entry, into the land.

00:35:12.640 Joshua leads the Jordan baptism, like the Red Sea is a baptism.

00:35:19.660 He leads into the Promised Land. 0.68

00:35:22.760 Elisha is baptized as he enters back into the land through the Jordan River.

00:35:28.260 And then he has Naaman wash in the Jordan, if you remember, to enter the service of Yahweh.

00:35:34.860 So John's baptism is a baptism of re-entering the land, rightly, when the land itself is defiled. 0.99

00:35:43.620 His baptism places you, even in the midst of a corrupt and perverse and twisted generation, 0.99

00:35:49.660 his baptism places you back on the side of the Messiah, instead of on the side of the evil Hamitic Canaanites. 0.99

00:35:58.260 And so, repent. 0.97

00:36:03.240 Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

00:36:06.960 He is at the door.

00:36:09.260 If there is sin in your life, do not leave it alone.

00:36:14.980 Do not wait until next week to repent of it.

00:36:19.760 Do not say that I will get to that next month.

00:36:22.360 the Lord offers you one last opportunity

00:36:27.560 in the baptism of John 0.54

00:36:28.680 before Jesus steps on the scene

00:36:31.600 do not decline that offer

00:36:34.020 be humble like John

00:36:38.760 don't grasp at the gift

00:36:41.480 grasp at the throne 0.97

00:36:43.180 we have a lot of type A men

00:36:48.620 personalities in this room

00:36:50.200 we have a lot of people who want to achieve different things

00:36:54.460 and sure, go after it

00:36:57.580 but ultimately remember it's God that's going to hand it to you

00:37:00.420 do not take what is not yours

00:37:03.120 model the Baptist in this regard

00:37:06.840 and God says if you are humble

00:37:09.820 he will exalt you in due time

00:37:12.040 and finally boldly proclaim the truth

00:37:16.380 even if, particularly if

00:37:19.920 it makes the religious elite uncomfortable.

00:37:23.540 Boldly, lovingly, but boldly proclaim the truth.

00:37:28.340 And not just online, guys, not just online.

00:37:32.540 To the people we know, to our friends and our neighbors.

00:37:36.700 It's easy, relatively speaking,

00:37:39.280 to give a bold shot of truth out there into the void of the online world.

00:37:44.540 And there's a time and a place for that, and that's extremely important.

00:37:47.260 But it's much harder to look at someone square in the eye who you know, who you know you're going to see tomorrow, who is going to be forming opinions about you, and speak the truth there to your family, to your co-workers, to the other moms at the park.

00:38:03.280 That is difficult.

00:38:05.560 That is your work of gospel preaching.

00:38:10.620 That is how you are calling the wicked to repentance, the same way John was.

00:38:14.720 this is difficult

00:38:17.860 but you have been given the spirit

00:38:21.620 for just this purpose

00:38:22.860 let his words abide in you

00:38:27.520 and come out of you

00:38:28.640 in the name of the Father, the Son

00:38:31.420 and the Holy Ghost, Amen

Dale Partridge - September 27, 2026

John 1_19-28 - The Testimony of John the Baptist

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