John 1:19 - Meaning and Application

We have here John’s testimony, given to the messengers sent from Jerusalem to question him. Notice, first, who sent them and who they were. The senders were the Jews in Jerusalem, the great Sanhedrin, the main Jewish ruling council that handled religious matters. You might expect the leaders of learning and religion to know from the Scriptures that the Messiah was near, and to welcome John at once as his forerunner. Instead, they sent men to challenge him. Secular learning, honor, and power rarely make people ready for God’s light.

The men sent were priests and Levites, and probably members of the council, men of learning, dignity, and authority. John the Baptist was also a priest from Aaron’s family, so it was fitting that priests should question him. Malachi had said that John’s ministry would purify the sons of Levi (Malachi 3:3), so they were likely uneasy about his reforming work. Some of the messengers were also Pharisees, proud self-righteous men who thought they had no need to repent. So they could not bear a preacher whose whole work was to call people to repentance.

Their purpose was to ask about John and his baptism. They did not send for him to come to them, likely because they feared the crowd, or because they wanted to keep him at a distance. They asked about him for more than one reason. They wanted to satisfy curiosity, like the Athenians who wanted to hear Paul’s new teaching just for its novelty (Acts 17:19-20). They also wanted to show their authority by putting on trial the one everyone else regarded as a prophet. And they hoped to silence him if they could find any excuse, because his growing influence worried them, and his message did not fit their old understanding of Moses or of the Messiah’s kingdom.

John’s answer, both about himself and about his baptism, gave witness to Christ. First, he spoke about himself and what he claimed to be. They asked him, “Who are you?” John’s appearance had caused surprise. He had lived in the wilderness until the day God showed him to Israel. His spirit, his manner of life, and his teaching all carried weight, but he never tried to make himself seem greater than he was. Unlike deceivers, he did not present himself as some great figure. He was more eager to do good than to attract attention, so he would not speak of himself until he was formally questioned. Those who speak best for Christ usually say least about themselves, letting their works speak for them.

He answered clearly, first by denying what he was not. He was not the great person some people thought him to be. God’s true servants must guard themselves not only against being despised, but also against being overpraised. Paul spoke strongly both against those who made too much of him and those who made too little of him. When John was taken for the Messiah, he did not let the mistake continue. He openly and firmly said, “I am not the Christ.” Ministers of Christ must remember that they are not Christ. They must not claim his authority or the honor that belongs to him alone. They cannot give new grace and peace, or bring spiritual life and comfort, because they are not Christ.

The wording here shows how firmly John said this. He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed it plainly. That shows his strength and steadiness in refusing improper honor. Temptations to pride, and to taking credit that belongs to God, should be resisted with real seriousness. John did not quietly accept the error with a careless, “If people want to be deceived, let them.” He openly declared, “I am not the Christ.” By lowering himself, he was honoring Christ. Those who humble themselves truly confess Christ, but those who will not deny themselves end up denying him.

He also denied that he was Elijah. The Jews expected Elijah himself to come down from heaven and live among them, and they hoped for great things from that. John’s strange manner of life, his teaching, and his baptism, along with the fact that he appeared in the same region from which Elijah had gone up to heaven, made some think he might be Elijah returned. But John denied that honor too. He was indeed the one foretold under Elijah’s name (Malachi 4:5), and he came in the spirit and power of Elijah (Luke 1:17). He was the Elijah who was to come (Matthew 11:14), but not the same person who went to heaven in the fiery chariot and later appeared with Christ at the transfiguration. He was the Elijah God promised, not the Elijah people had imagined. Elijah did come, and they did not recognize him (Matthew 17:12), nor did John present himself as that figure, because they had invented expectations that God had never promised.

John also denied that he was “that prophet.” First, he was not the prophet Moses spoke of, whom the Lord would raise up from among their brothers, like Moses himself. If they meant that prophet, they did not need to ask further, because that prophet was the Messiah, and John had already said, “I am not the Christ.” Second, he was not the kind of prophet they wanted, one like Samuel or Elijah who would step into public affairs and rescue them from Roman rule. Third, he was not one of the ancient prophets brought back from the dead, which some people expected before Elijah’s appearance and then before the Messiah’s. Fourth, even though John truly was a prophet, indeed more than a prophet, his revelation did not come through dreams and visions like the prophets of the Old Testament. His calling and work belonged to a different kind of ministry and to a different covenant.

If John had said that he was Elijah or a prophet, he might have been right enough. But ministers must always speak carefully. They should not help people keep false ideas, and especially should not let anyone think too highly of them.

Next comes his clear answer. The group sent to question him pressed him for a direct reply (John 1:22). They appealed to the authority of the people who had sent them, and expected John to respect that. They were saying, in effect, “Tell us who you are. We are not asking so we can believe you and be baptized by you. We need an answer to give the ones who sent us, so they will not think we came back with nothing.”

John was known as an honest man, so they expected a plain answer, not a vague one. They asked, “What do you say about yourself?” He answered, “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness.” He answers in the words of Scripture, showing that Scripture was being fulfilled in him and that his work had God’s authority. Those who serve in ministry should often remember what God’s word says about their calling, and hold themselves to that and only that.

John’s answer is also very humble. He chooses the part of Scripture that speaks of his duty, not his honor. He is saying, in effect, “I am only a voice,” almost as if he were nothing more than voice itself. He gives an account of himself that would help them, because it would turn their attention to the message they needed to hear.

He was the voice spoken of in Isaiah 40:3. He was a voice that warned people, and also a voice that taught them. Ministers are only the voice, the means God uses to make his mind known. What are Paul and Apollos, after all, but servants sent with a message?

John was a human voice. The people were once prepared for the law by thunder and a very loud trumpet, which made them tremble. But they were prepared for the gospel by a man like themselves, a quiet voice, like the one by which God came to Elijah (1 Kings 19:12). He was also the voice of one crying out. That shows his earnestness. He called people to repentance with urgency, and did not hold back. Ministers must preach as people who truly mean what they say, and who are themselves moved by the truth they want to press on others.

He was also crying out openly, so all kinds of people could hear and take notice. Does not wisdom also cry out? (Proverbs 8:1) And he cried in the wilderness, a place of silence and loneliness, away from the noise and rush of the world. The more we withdraw from the distractions of ordinary business, the better prepared we are to hear from God.

What he cried was this: “Make straight the way of the Lord.” This means, first, that he came to correct people’s mistaken ideas about God’s ways. God’s ways are straight, but the scribes and Pharisees had twisted them with their wrong explanations of the law. John called people back to the original rule. It also means that he came to prepare people to receive Christ and his gospel. The image is like a herald for a king, crying, “Make room.” When God comes near us, we must get ready to meet him, and let the word of the Lord have free course (Psalm 24:7).

John also testified about his baptism. The question they asked him was, “Why are you baptizing, if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor that prophet?” (John 1:25) They already understood baptism as a proper sacred act. The Jewish church had used it, along with circumcision, when admitting converts, to show the washing away of their former uncleanness. That same sign was used in the Christian church so it would be more familiar and welcome. Christ did not seek novelty, and neither should his ministers.

They also expected baptism to be used in the days of the Messiah, because Scripture promised that then there would be a fountain opened and clean water sprinkled (Zechariah 13:1; Ezekiel 36:25). So they took it for granted that Christ, Elijah, and that prophet would baptize when they came to cleanse a polluted world. Divine justice once drowned the old world in its filth, but divine grace has provided cleansing for this new world.

So they wanted to know by what authority John baptized. Since he denied that he was Elijah or that prophet, they pressed the question further: Why are you baptizing? It is not new for a person’s humility to be turned against him and used to harm him. Still, it is better for people to take advantage of our low opinion of ourselves than for the devil to take advantage of our pride.

John answered that he was only the minister of the outward sign. “I baptize with water, and that is all.” He was saying, “I do only what you can see. I have no higher title than John the Baptist, and I cannot give the spiritual grace that the sign points to.” Paul was careful that no one should think of him as more than he was (2 Corinthians 12:6), and John the Baptist was careful in the same way. Ministers must not act as if they were masters.

He also pointed them to One greater than himself, One who could do for them what he could not. “I baptize with water, and that is the limit of my work. My task is to lead you to the One who comes after me, and hand you over to him.” The great work of Christ’s ministers is to point everyone to Christ. We do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord.

John gave this same answer to this group that he had already given to the people (John 1:15). He stayed steady in his witness, not like a reed shaken by the wind. The Sanhedrin were jealous of his influence with the people, but he was not afraid to tell them that One greater than he was already among them. Christ was standing among them at that very time, and they did not know him.

Christ was among the ordinary people, and looked like one of them. Much true worth is hidden in this world, and real greatness is often unnoticed. Saints are God’s hidden ones, so the world does not know them. God himself is often closer to us than we realize. “The Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.” They were looking around for the Messiah, saying, “He is here,” or “He is there,” while the kingdom of God was already among them (Luke 17:21).

Then John the Baptist tells them how much higher Christ is than himself. Christ, he says, comes after me, yet he is preferred before me. John had said this before, and he says it again here with even more humility: “I am not worthy to untie his sandal strap.” In other words, John says he is not fit for the lowest service around Christ. Those who treasure Christ see even the humblest service for him as a great honor (1 Samuel 25:41; Psalm 84:10).

If such a great man as John thought himself unworthy to be close to Christ, how much more should we humble ourselves! It is striking that these chief priests and Pharisees, after hearing this hint about the coming Messiah, did not immediately ask who he was and where to find him. John was the one most likely to tell them. But they were not looking for instruction from him. They came to trouble John, not to learn from him, so their ignorance was willful. They could have known Christ, but they refused to know him.

John’s witness also happened in Bethabara beyond the Jordan, the place where he was baptizing (John 1:28). Bethabara means “house of passage,” and some think it was the very place where Israel crossed the Jordan into the promised land under Joshua. If so, it is fitting that the way into the gospel life was opened there by Jesus Christ. The place was far from Jerusalem, across the Jordan, perhaps because what John did there would draw less notice from the rulers. Like Amos, who had to prophesy in the country and not near the court, John spoke in a place away from the city. It was sad that Jerusalem kept so far from herself the things that belonged to her peace. He made this confession where he was baptizing, so everyone who came to be baptized could hear it and no one could later say they had not heard his testimony.