Who are you? I really wanna know!

John 1:19-28  Who are you?

Tonight’s message is entitled Who are you? Show of hands of how many of you just said to yourselves “I really wanna know?” Yeah because of the song! The Who released in 1978 one of their most popular songs “Who are you?” About the lead singers frustrations with life, executives and police officers. The non radio edit of the song has an extra verse in which the singer is struggling with his own identity.

Part of the reason the song still resonates today is most of us don’t know who we are. Who we really are. Let’s see how that plays out in tonight’s passage John 1:19-28

¹⁹ Now this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” ²⁰ He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ.” ²¹ And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?”

And he answered, “No.”

We talked last time about how Jesus, the Logos, creator and sustainer of all things, took on human flesh. This not like us putting on a custome and pretending to be someone else for a while. This is the Hypostatic Union! The great mystery, that Jesus was both fully God and fully Human. Now we have John The Baptist on the scene.

We take for granted knowing who John the Baptist is. We’ve heard sermons and stories all about him. At the bare minimum most of us know he baptized people, and upset the religious and political leaders of his day by calling out their hypocrisy. We know from the previous verses in John 1 that he came not so much to baptize but as a witness! Who is he a witness for? The Logos!

At this point in his ministry he is drawing a crowd, and nothing draws a crowd like a crowd. Also, as a fun thing to do after service, ask David about that crowd we wandered into in Baltimore that time. He loves that story.

The Pharisees see that John is starting to draw a huge crowd. They don’t like being called out on their hypocrisy so the go up to John and go who are you?

Now typically when someone asks who are you?  Particularly in a situation such as this one, we respond with our name and title. Identification and authority. This is not how John choses to respond. He starts with who he isn’t. He is not the Christ. This seems odd but it only seems odd because it’s so convicting.

John told the Jewish leaders who he was not. He did not come to focus attention on himself, because he was not the Messiah. His job was to point to the Messiah. We have the same job, to point to the Messiah.

This is tough! We love ourselves. It’s why Jesus said love your neighbor as yourself! We all love ourselves. We’re very concerned about our own welfare, our own comfort, safety, interests, health, etc. We have a hope we want to realize it. We have a desire we want to fulfill it. We have a need we see to it that it gets met.

Comedian Jim Gaffigan does a bit entitled myself “I want to look at myself while I work on myself. I should make a recording of myself so I can listen to myself while I work on myself while I look at myself. Maybe I can read a self magazine and read about how I can improve myself. I’m going to go on Facebook and look at pictures of myself while I read what myself wrote about myself”  Here’s the thing beloved, if you think a lot about yourself or a little about yourself do you know what you are thinking about? Your self!

John knew what was up. It was not, nor was it ever, nor would it ever be, about him. It’s about Jesus.

²² Then they said to him, “Who are you, that we may give an answer to those who sent us? What do you say about yourself?” ²³ He said: “I am ‘The voice of one crying in the wilderness: “Make straight the way of the Lord,” ’ as the prophet Isaiah said.” ²⁴ Now those who were sent were from the Pharisees. ²⁵ And they asked him, saying, “Why then do you baptize if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?”

²⁶ John answered them, saying, “I baptize with water, but there stands One among you whom you do not know. ²⁷ It is He who, coming after me, ^[i]is preferred before me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose.” ²⁸ These things were done in ^[j]Bethabara beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing.

They essentially say well if you aren’t the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor Prophet, then you are a nobody and nobodies don’t get to baptize people. John gives them an answer. He quotes Isaiah and says he is the voice crying in the wilderness.

 Isa 40:3 “The voice of one crying in the wilderness:
“Prepare the way of the LORD;
Make straight in the desert
A highway for our God.”

The King is coming, and He is the king’s herald.

A herald had two main purposes in ancient times. He was to announce the arrival of the king. The other was for them and the servants sent along with them to prepare the road for the king. Think of this crew of servants as an ancient DOT.

The gospel of Matthew gives us some insight into John’s appearance on the scene. It says that he arrived preaching. The greek word is the same word you would use for to speak of the arrival of an official. John was the official herald announcing the arrival of a king and what was his message? Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. It was imminent, the next thing.

Then Matthew also references Isa 40:3 “Prepare the way of the Lord” He was calling the people to work on the path, to get it ready for the King to arrive. He wasn’t asking people to fix a dirt road, he was asking them to repentant of their sins, to prepare the road in their hearts that they king might enter. That was his purpose and that is the purpose of all true preaching.

His message in essence was repent, repent. Why was it important to repent prior to the arrival of the king? We can’t worship until we deal with our sin. You don’t feel like coming to church, studying the word, praying, fellowshipping? It’s time to check your heart.

That was also the point of baptism. John's baptism was a one-time, one-shot deal; and Jews never did that.  What? Being Baptists, we don’t think baptisms are unusual. They are events to be celebrated! The whole family comes out.

The reasons it stands out so much here, is that the Jews didn’t baptize. The only expection was when a gentile wanted to convert to Judaism. He would submit himself to the baptism that John is performing. The gentle was saying “I am an outsider seeking entrance into the people of God” yet for the Jews the thought process was I was born into the family of God. The kingdom of God was a birthright for them not a choice. They forgot who they were.

For all those times tomorrow, Friday and the next day that we forget who we are I give you this reminder from Ephesians 1.

³ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, ⁴ just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, ⁵ having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, ⁶ to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He ^[a]made us accepted in the Beloved.

⁷ In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace ⁸ which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and ^[b]prudence, ⁹ having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, ¹⁰ that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, ^[c]both which are in heaven and which are on earth—in Him. ¹¹ In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, ¹² that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory.

¹³ In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, ¹⁴ who^[d] is the ^[e]guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.