Participants: Deyvy Rodriguez & Jon Paulien
Series Code: JBOTB
Program Code: JBOTB00005B
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00:01 And welcome back.
00:02 Well, Dr. Jon Paulien, 00:04 we are studying that the John, the Baptist, 00:07 he is denying these questions. 00:09 He said, "No, I'm not Elijah. 00:11 No, I'm not the prophet. No, I'm not the Christ." 00:13 He is almost putting himself down. 00:16 Whereas in other gospels, he is this great prophet. 00:19 And even Jesus said he was a great prophet. 00:21 Where he calls him Elijah? Right. 00:23 Here John denies he is Elijah 00:26 even when Jesus had called him. 00:28 And so why does John do that? 00:30 Why does he deny? 00:31 Why can't he just clearly go direct 00:34 to the answer who he is? 00:36 Well, the impression you gave 00:38 when you study carefully the history in the background 00:41 is that the Baptist movement didn't die when Jesus came. 00:45 Apparently, a lot of people didn't get the message that-- 00:48 And by Baptist movement, you mean they were followers? 00:51 People who followed him. 00:52 I mean, you see even in these stories 00:54 as crowds of people coming to him. 00:56 You know, to hear his preaching. 00:57 In all the gospels, you have-- 00:59 that's one of the things all four gospels has in common. 01:01 John's out in the desert. He is preaching. 01:04 Crowds of people are coming to him. 01:06 He is a sensation. 01:07 He is a rock star, you know, in their kind of world. 01:11 So John is this great figure 01:14 and he becomes great in order to point out the Messiah 01:17 when he comes 'cause the Messiah will not be 01:20 as obviously great as John when he first appears. 01:24 So he is there 01:25 to get the people's attention and then point him out. 01:28 But here in the Gospel of John happens what didn't happened. 01:34 Apparently, in the years between Matthew, Mark, and Luke, 01:38 which were probably written in '50s, '60s something like that, 01:41 now we are about 30-40 years later. 01:44 In the intervening time, something has happened. 01:47 Apparently, the Baptist movement didn't end when Jesus came. 01:54 For example, in the Book of Acts, 01:56 you have Apollos who was a follower, 01:59 who'd never even heard about the spirit, 02:01 he was a follower of the Baptist. 02:03 He missed a lot of the memos about Jesus. 02:06 Then you have also in the gospel-- 02:08 in the Book of Acts, 02:10 there are stories about some people 02:13 who are following the Baptist. 02:15 They didn't baptized by John, 02:16 but they didn't know anything about Jesus. 02:18 So they evidently were continuing 02:21 the follower of the Baptists 02:23 until they ran into Paul and his companions. 02:26 And then there is a group of people 02:28 in ancient times called Mandaeans, 02:31 who continued to follow Baptist and they still exist today. 02:35 A many of them are in Iran. 02:38 You know, modern day Persia. 02:41 And they still continue 02:43 to worship the Baptist as the chief guy. 02:47 So, when you realize the Baptist movement continued 02:51 suddenly some of this makes sense. 02:54 Even what the Baptists says in this gospel made sense. 03:00 And it would seem reasonable 03:03 that this Baptist movement actually got kind of radical 03:06 because John lost his head for political reasons. 03:10 Do you remember the story? 03:12 He was saying stuff about the king and his wife. 03:15 Now that will get you in trouble, you see. 03:18 So he was taking a strong political kind of role, 03:23 and so it's possible that the followers of the Baptist 03:26 might have even gotten a bit challenging. 03:30 And the John, the Baptist was careful 03:31 not to draw people to himself. 03:34 That's what the Gospel of John is telling us. Right. 03:37 But evidently, there were some people 03:39 who after John, the Baptist was gone 03:41 were seeing him as a Messiah, seeing him as the light, 03:46 seeing him as Elijah, etcetera. 03:49 And the Gospel of John is correcting this 03:52 by bringing data to fore 03:54 that they'd overlooked about the Baptist. 03:57 And you asked the question, 04:00 who in his right mind would see the John as any rival to Jesus, 04:05 was a couple of things you need to know. 04:07 First of all, the Jews of that time 04:10 were expecting more than one Messiah. 04:13 When you go to the writings 04:15 between the old and New Testament, 04:16 you discover that they actually had two Messiahs. 04:20 One would be from the tribe of Judah 04:22 and the other from the tribe of Levi. 04:25 And so when you have the idea of two Messiahs, 04:28 where Jesus is from the tribe of Judah, 04:30 John is a priest, so he is from the tribe of Levi. 04:34 So that fits perfectly with the expectation 04:38 that they had at that time. 04:40 In the Old Testament, you had the king and the high priest. 04:45 You had Zerubbabel and Joshua. 04:49 You had the priestly Messiah 04:52 and the kingly Messiah at Qumran, 04:54 you know, where the Dead Sea scrolls were found. 04:56 You have this kind of a concept. 04:58 So the idea was the two Messiah. 05:01 So the question is which of these is greater? 05:04 And in Judaism, there is another concept that comes here 05:07 and that is that earlier is better. 05:10 Earlier is better. 05:12 If you come later, you're not as good as what came earlier. 05:16 I think of Jesus, when he says, 05:18 you know, they said Moses allowed us to divorce our wives 05:20 and Jesus says, "I know He did." 05:22 But in the beginning it wasn't so. 05:24 Jesus is appealing back earlier as authority for them. 05:28 He is accepting there the kind of concept that they had. 05:32 So to convince them that really he shouldn't divorce. 05:36 When it comes to Sabbath, you know, people say, 05:39 "Well, the Sabbath is something at the Jews did." 05:42 And Jesus said, "No, wait a minute. 05:44 In the beginning, man was made not for the Sabbath, 05:48 the Sabbath was not made from-- that was ago. 05:51 Sabbath was made for man 05:52 not man for the Sabbath, you see." 05:54 And that man is speaking of Adam. 05:57 So you see Jesus had a tenancy to go back earlier 06:00 to establish the thing and say, 06:03 if you want to reform something, 06:04 you go back to an earlier period when it was good. 06:06 So it makes sense what the Jews were saying. 06:10 The high priest was there for 400 years 06:13 before there was a king. 06:15 The high priest anoints the king and puts the crown on his head. 06:19 So they were thinking that if John came first 06:23 and he was from the Levi, he was greater than Jesus. 06:26 And so, what does the text here tell us? 06:30 How does it respond? 06:32 And for the gospel writers, Jesus is both priest and king. 06:36 He is the sacrificial lamb, 06:38 He is that the priest of ancient Israel, 06:42 and He is also the king 06:45 and the model for Jesus was guy name Melchizedek. 06:48 You remember Melchizedek in the Book of Hebrews? 06:50 He is both king and priest. 06:52 And he is before Aaron. 06:54 So he trumps the priestly line. 06:56 He is the king and priest that came before Aaron and David. 07:00 So the New Testament writers are arguing 07:04 with some of these concepts, these reveals to Jesus. 07:08 And what is John's answer in the prologue? 07:12 How does he answer? 07:13 Who came first? Jesus. 07:17 How would you know that he came first? 07:19 'Cause He was in the beginning from eternity was God. 07:24 So the prologue sets the table for these statements. 07:28 When John says, "He is greater than me 07:30 because he came he was before me." 07:34 That made no sense to the people here in John talk. 07:36 Obviously, 'cause some of them didn't even follow it, you know. 07:40 But the reader of the gospel with the prologue and my-- 07:44 now he understands, "Oh, Jesus was earlier. 07:48 He was greater than the Baptist." 07:51 So the Gospel of John is trying to restore the Baptist 07:55 to the place that God actually intended for Him to be, 08:00 and this chapter 1, 08:02 you won't find it in Matthew, Mark, or Luke, 08:04 but it's building on the story that's going on 08:08 behind the scenes in that first century. 08:12 And then He says He makes that answer now. 08:16 He says, "I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness." 08:20 So He then--after He denies three times then he says, 08:24 "Okay, that's not who I am, but let me tell you who I am. 08:27 I am that voice of one crying in the wilderness, 08:30 make straight the way of the Lord." 08:33 So his only mission is to point out Jesus. 08:38 He is not be a rock star, that's what happened. 08:41 But John, he was deferring all of that praise 08:44 and all the glory, so he can point that Jesus. 08:47 Why don't you read verses 29-34 because it is there 08:52 that John actually carries out His mission? 08:55 "The next day John saw Jesus coming told him he said, 08:58 'Behold the Lamb of God, 09:00 who takes away the sin of the world 09:03 this is he of whom I said, 09:05 after me comes a man who is preferred before me, 09:08 for he was before me. 09:11 I did not know him but that he should be revealed to Israel, 09:14 therefore I came baptizing with water. 09:18 And John witness saying, 09:20 I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, 09:23 and he remained upon him. 09:26 I did not know him, 09:27 but he who sent me to baptize with water, said to me, 09:30 upon whom you see the Spirit descending, 09:33 and remaining on him, 09:34 this is he who baptizes with the Holy Sprit. 09:38 And I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God." 09:44 So here he accomplishes his mission 09:46 that is what he came for when Jesus comes to be baptized. 09:50 It even says John didn't know him. 09:53 They apparently were somewhat related, 09:56 but it maybe that they were separated, 09:58 you know, from a very early time and so the adult Jesus, 10:01 the adult John did not know each other. 10:03 John would not have recognized Jesus 10:06 if he saw him on the street, 10:07 but the Holy Spirit said to him, "This is the one. 10:11 This is the one that you where to point out." 10:13 And so John points to Jesus. 10:16 He is setting the table for Jesus here. 10:20 And in the rest of this chapter that's what we see happening. 10:24 The disciples of John start coming to Jesus. 10:28 You're seeing the transition between the two. 10:32 So let's take a look at verses 36 and 37, 10:35 we can see that transition. 10:36 "And looking at Jesus as he walked, 10:39 he said, 'Behold the Lamb of God. 10:42 The two disciples heard him speak, 10:44 and they followed Jesus.'" 10:46 Now one could ask the question, which Lamb of God? 10:50 You know, is it the past over lamb? 10:52 Is it the sacrificial lamb? Is it the lamb of Isaiah 53? 10:56 You know, you have all these different options. 10:58 I think in John particularly is a passover lamb. 11:02 Because it mentions at the crucifixion 11:05 that no bone was broken because in the passover, 11:10 they came at passover time. 11:12 So that's more of a technical question, 11:14 but you'll notice that when John identifies Jesus 11:19 some of His disciples immediately follow 11:22 and they go on their way. 11:25 And then notice verse 46. 11:28 "And Nathanael said to him, 11:30 'Can anything good come out of Nazareth?' 11:32 Philip said to him, 'Come and see.'" 11:35 So first of all, these two disciples John points to, 11:40 they find the couple of more, 11:42 Peter and Philip and then Philip finds Nathaniel, 11:46 and so the thing is kind of cascading 11:49 and they're coming to Jesus. 11:50 So it's drawing the transition 11:53 between the time of John and the time of Jesus. 11:57 Just a note on this, 11:58 can any good thing come out of the Nazareth? 12:01 You had three types of towns in Galilee. 12:04 There were strict Jewish towns. 12:07 There were loose Jewish towns 12:11 where they didn't follow laws all that great. 12:14 And then there were Gentile towns, 12:16 your Greek towns like, Sepphoris, so Tiberias. 12:22 So you have these three types of towns. 12:24 Cana and Nazareth were actually not far apart. 12:28 I could imagine that Cana was an observing town 12:32 and Nazareth seems to be loose area, 12:34 you know, not so serious about the Jewish faith. 12:37 I can imagine when Nathan was a little child, 12:40 you know, his father would say, 12:41 "Boy, I tell you, when Messiah comes, 12:43 he is definitely not gonna be coming from Nazareth." 12:47 They probably-- Anywhere but Nazareth. 12:48 Yeah, and exactly, 12:49 they're probably pretty frustrated with Nazareth. 12:52 So, you know, underlying here you see the skeptic Nathaniel 12:57 and yet he is really the faithful one, you know. 13:00 He is not easy to persuade, 13:02 but once he finds, Jesus is truly who He is. 13:06 He falls behind 100%. 13:09 Well, Dr. Paulien, we want to thank you 13:10 for being with us again and do some Bible study. 13:13 And thank you too friends for joining us. 13:16 I hope that you also make that decision 13:18 to follow Jesus Christ always. God bless. |
Revised 2014-12-17