Background
John the Baptizer was out in the wilderness, along the Jordan River, baptizing. He was a child of Torah, having memorized Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy by the time he was ten years old. His father was a Levitical priest.
As he grew, he would have become intimately familiar with the other books of the Jewish Bible, now called the Tanakh1.
Click to Read: John 1:29-34
Identity
The day before, John had been grilled by representatives of Jewish ruling council regarding his identity. “Who are you?” they asked. “If you are not the Christ, what then? Elijah?” The Holy Spirit had indwelled John since before he was born, the Word of God filled his mind and heart throughout his lifetime. Drawing from that well, he responded,
“I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as the prophet Isaiah said.”2
He knew with certainty that he himself was not the Anointed One, sent to take away the sins of the world. He was the forerunner, sent to turn people’s attention to the Anointed One, who was there with God in the beginning; who was God himself.
I presume that he was so certain of this because he had been told by God or one of his messengers, “He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes in the Holy Spirit.”
Fulfillment and Diminishing Influence
He testified to this when he saw Jesus coming toward him the next day, declaring, “Look! The Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world!”
To some degree, this signaled the fulfillment of his ministry. While he continued to baptize and preach, his influence increasingly diminished as he turned more and more of his followers to Jesus.3
World System
Perhaps you’ve noticed how much our world seems to be spinning out of control. Year by year natural disasters, wars, intrigues, political movements, and power plays seem to be on the increase. Media outlets are signaling increasing fear of nuclear holocaust in our time, financial disaster, and religious persecution.
The influence of the Roman Empire in John’s day was nothing compared to the power of the world system in our day. While the Roman’s power was distributed and external, the world system’s power is individualized and in our homes, ostensibly by means of ubiquitous technology.
Proactive Action
Now is not the time to allow the spirit of the age to direct us into its pernicious plans. There has never been a more opportune time to bear witness to the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. The more dark and demented society becomes, the more it needs the Light and Life.
We do well to follow in John’s footsteps by:
- Recognizing who we are and who we are not.
- Resisting the temptation to make a name for ourselves, instead turning others’ attention to the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.
- Encouraging those who would follow us to instead follow Him.
Conclusion
It is not an easy road to follow. It takes a quality of humility that is rare in our time. John willingly and rightfully ceded his influence to the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. We must do the same if those entrapped in the world system are to see something qualitatively different in those who follow the Lamb.
The world system is filled with ladder climbers, platform builders, and influencers who seek power/attention/influence for themselves.
Through our attitudes, actions, and words we must consistently trumpet the message of John the Baptist, “Look! The Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world!”
- A name made by combining the names of its parts: Torah, Nevi’im, and Kethuvim. The Nevi’im are the Prophets and the Kethuvim are the Writings. Together with the Torah, they comprise the same books as are in the Old Testament, albeit in a different order and arrangement. ↩︎
- Isaiah 40:3 ↩︎
- Cf. John 3:22-30 ↩︎