John 1:19-28 “The Witness and Confession of John the Baptist

In our afternoon discussion of this text, the first part of the gospel focused on the temptation John faced to feel flattered by the attention he was getting from the Jews in Jerusalem. This attention wasn’t restricted to the religious establishment, but included governing Jews. I like to relate these contexts to current day situations, and what came to mind was the temptation high profile preachers and evangelists today face when politicians approach them to see if they can drum up a little support from their followers. We just experienced it in the recent election when politicians were schmoozing or distancing themselves from Rick Warren, John Hagee, Rod Parsley, Jeremiah Wright, etc. The governing officials weren’t really interested in their theology, but only their voters and popularity. The officials were asking if John was Elijah because of the reference in Malachi 4:1-6. Elijah will precede the coming day of the Lord. If you read chapter 4, the question that comes up is this: is this ominous day of the Lord when those who are arrogant and evil doers will be stubble and the day that is coming will set them on fire. This fire, we determined is the refiner’s fire that is talked about in chapter 3 of Malachi, and not ‘hell fire’. The Elijah figure will precede the Messiah, and the result will cause some to be purified. Jesus confirms in Matt. 11:14 and 17:11 that John the Baptist is the Elijah referred by the OT to come before the Messiah. We thought it odd that John denied he was a prophet, but commentaries think he was denying that he was the prophet foretold by Moses. Luther believed the prophet referred to was anyone who would be a leader of the people and pointed to a coming messiah. The Jews had been waiting for a prophet to come for four hundred years. But John denied being any kind of prophet because, according to Luther, prophets foretell the coming of Christ, whereas John’s role was to point to a present day Messiah, not one in the future. Bringing this into today, Luther says the role of the preacher today is the role of John the Baptist: to point to Christ among us now, (not to pull attention to ourselves) and not to look to the future for a messiah to come. It’s not a future salvation but a present day salvation. When John says his role is to prepare the way for the Lord, I looked up the definition of the Hebrew word for “prepare”, also translated as “make straight”, and it means “turn and do.” John’s role was to ‘turn and do’ the way of the Lord? That’s an interesting way to look at it when you consider the definition of ‘repent’ is ‘to turn away’ from the world, and one of the two definitions of ‘forgive’ is ‘to let go of sin’ (on the part of the sinner!). John preached a baptism (immersion) of repentance (turning away from the world) for the forgiveness of sin (letting go of sinful ways) from Mark 1. To prepare the way of the Lord is to turn and do the will of God. To open the way to God reigning in your life is to do the will of God. Jesus said the same thing when He told the rich young man the way to inherit eternal life was to follow the commandments. We talked about John’s baptism with water being a reference to the physical component of the rite in which one makes a commitment to turn away from the world and to let go of sin. Our physical efforts to stay away from sin are pitiful. That’s why we must repent/turn away daily. Only with Jesus baptizing us with the Holy Spirit do we stand a chance of resisting the temptations of the world do any degree. Then we have the possibility of living the quality of life only God can give us, which is but a foretaste of the feast to come. Luther, however, taught that preparing the way of the Lord meant knowing how undeserving and sinful we are, humbly knowing our miserable condition and inability to lift ourselves higher even through works. Christ has to dwell within us for works to do any good, because they are Christ’s works and not ours. Spiritual conceit and pharisaical pride are hindrances to the way of the Lord. They give a false sense of security when one does good works (#27). Luther’s teaching in this sermon is that preachers need to preach the Law so people can learn what great things God demands of us and that we cannot fulfill. We have to be brought to the point of despair before we hear that the Lamb of God, Jesus, takes away the sin of the world. I found this interesting because it seems to conflict with another sermon Luther wrote where he said preachers should only preach the Gospel. One reason is that the Law never saved anyone. The Law can only show you that you are unable to follow it. In many sermons, He points out that people came to Jesus because they heard a good report about Him, that He was able to help them and was willing to help them. Good news draws people to Him, not the Law. Once someone recognizes their sin through the Law, confesses and turns their life around, then why pound them with the Law again and again except to keep them on their knees and uncertain of their eternal future? It’s a form of manipulation and control. The Gospel gives us freedom. There’s an ending section where Luther gives the spiritual meaning of the text, and I’ll cover that in a few days. I have some variation of opinion from Luther on this. Blessings, PWM