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- Preaching the Living WORD through
the Written WORD - 2 Tim 4;:2 - |
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GOSPEL OF JOHN Grace Bible Church,
Gillette, Wyoming Pastor Daryl Hilbert II. SON OF GOD’S PUBLIC
MINISTRY (Jn 1:19-12:50) [03 – (Jn
1:19-51) 11/25/2009] A. The Beginning (Jn
1:19-4:54) 1. Introduction
to John the Baptist (Jn 1:19-34) a) John the
Baptist Identified Himself (Jn 1:19-28) (1) John the
Baptist came from the line of Levites, and his father Zacharias was a priest.
Elisabeth, his mother, was from the line of Aaron (Lk 1:5). John the Baptist
was the last prophet before Christ (Lk 1:76 cp. Mt 11:9). His purpose was to
prepare the people’s hearts for the coming Messiah as recorded by the prophet
Malachi (Mal 3:1; Mt 11:10; Mk 1:2; Lk 7:27). (2) The apostle John begins to write about the
ministry of John the Baptist. John was sent by God to be a testimony (marturía
– concrete proof through an eye-witness) and confirmation of the Person
and Work of Christ (Jn 1:6-8). (3) The priests and Levites were sent to
question John the Baptist concerning his identification. He denied that he
was Christ, Elijah and the Prophet. The mention of Elijah was connected with
the Jews understanding of the prophecy that Elijah would come before the
coming of the day of the Lord (Mal 4:5). Christ only likened John the Baptist
to Elijah (Mt 11:14) and an angel revealed that he would come in the spirit
of Elijah (Lk 1:17). Peter revealed that “the Prophet” of Dt 18:15 referred
to Christ (Ac 3:22-23), though some Jews thought he was Elijah, Jeremiah, or
one of the other prophets (cp. Mt 16:14). He answered that he was the one
Isaiah prophesied, a voice of one crying in the wilderness, 'make straight
the way of the Lord (Is 40:3). (4) They asked John the Baptist about his
baptism. He was baptizing in order to prepare the hearts of the people for
the Messiah. He reiterated that he was not the Messiah who was greater and
had already come. b) John the
Baptist Identified the Son of God (Jn 1:29-34) (1) John the
Baptist saw Jesus coming and proclaimed that He was the “Lamb of God.” This
title identified Jesus as Isaiah’s Messiah who was “like a lamb that is led
to the slaughter” (Is 53:7 cp. Ex 12:1-36). Jesus was God’s ultimate
sacrificial lamb who would “take away the sins of the world” (Jn 1:29) The
Old Testament sacrifices merely made a temporary covering for sin. But Christ
expiated sin and removed it (cp. scapegoat, Le 16:10) once for all (Ro 6:10;
10:10). (2) John the Baptist explained that Christ
ranked higher than himself because Christ existed (perfect active from
gínomai – “has existed and continues to exist”) before him,
alluding to Christ’s eternality (Jn 1:1). (3) John only baptized with water, but Jesus
would baptize all those who believed in Him with the Holy Spirit (Jn 1:33; Jn
20:22 cp. Ac 1:5, 2:1-4). (4) The importance of John the Baptist’s
testimony was that as a prophet, he identified Jesus as the Christ and the
Son of God (Jn 1:34). God told him that he would see the Holy Spirit descend
upon the Messiah like a dove upon. He not only witnessed the Holy Spirit
descend upon Jesus earlier, but he heard the voice of the Father identify
Jesus as the Messiah (Mt 3:16-17; Mk 1:10-11; Lk 3:21-22). Isaiah stated that
the Messiah would be known by the fact that He would have the Holy Spirit (Is
11:2; 42:1) and minister in the power of the Holy Spirit (Lk 4:18 cp. Is
61:1, 35:5). 2. Calling
of the Disciples (Jn 1:35-51) a) Jesus
Calls His First Disciples (Jn 1:35-42) (1) To
illustrate that Jesus was the Messiah (“Lamb of God”) and greater than John
the Baptist, John’s disciples left him and followed Christ. The term
“followed” (akolouthéō) can mean anything from simple
following in line (Jn 11:31), to permanent followers of Christ (Mt 19:27), as
well as anything in between (Jn 1:41). It appears that most of the Twelve
initially believed that Jesus was the Messiah but did not leave their
occupations and become permanent followers of Christ (cp. Mt 4:18-22 and Mk
1:16-20 with Lk 5:1-11). (2) We know that one of the two disciples was
Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother (Jn 1:40). The other disciple mentioned in vs.
35 may have been the author of this Gospel. …it is probable that the
unnamed one is John, the writer of the Gospel, who shows his characteristic
reserve in not naming himself. In all subsequent lists of the Twelve, John is
always grouped among the first four along with Andrew, Peter, James, and John
(Mt 10:2-4; Mk 3:14-19; Lk 6:13-16; Ac 1:13). (Kent, Light in the
Darkness, pg. 43) (3) When Andrew finds his brother Peter, he
states that he has found the Messiah, which is a Hebrew “transliteration” (to
place a word directly into another language), for mashiach. The
Greek translation of Messiah is Christos. Both come from roots which mean
to anoint in a divine and official sense (cp. 1Sa 16:13; Is 61:1) (4) When Jesus meets Peter, whose name was
Simon, He gives him the name “Cephas,” which is translated “Peter.” Both
Cephas and Peter (petros) mean a “large rock or boulder.” This depicts
the fact that Peter would eventually become a pillar of the church (Ac 1:15;
2:14; 4:8; Ga 2:9). b) Jesus
Calls Philip and Nathanael (Jn 1:43-51) (1) The
fourth day Jesus calls two more disciples, Philip and Nathanael. Philip found
Nathanael and brought him to Jesus, depicting Him as the one whom “Moses in
the Law and also the Prophets wrote.” As already noted, Moses spoke of
the Messiah (Dt 18:15) in the Law (Pentateuch). The writing of the prophets
are saturated with prophecies concerning Christ’s first and second advents
(cp. Lk 24:44-47; Ac 10:43; Re 19:10). (2) The Messiah was identified specifically as
the son of Joseph from Nazareth. Nathanael’s disdain of Nazareth could have
come from either a “no-good” bias or the erroneous presupposition that the
Messiah would have to come from his place of birth (Bethlehem cp. Mi 5:2). (3) Jesus implied that Nathanael was one who
was investigative, forthright, and had “no deceit” (dòlos ouk – no
bait or trickery).This may have been an allusion to Jacob who deceitfully
(Ge 27:35, LXX dólos) took his brother’s blessing. True to
Jesus’ characterization, Nathanael declared that Jesus was the Son of God
because of His omniscience in knowing Nathanael’s statement and location
under the fig tree (Jn 1:48). (4) Jesus agreed with Nathanael’s declaration
(otherwise He would have rejected Nathanael’s blaspheme) and inferred that
His disciples would see not only great miracles, but would witness the angels
ascending and descending on the Son of Man. This was most likely another
allusion to Jacob’s ladder (Ge 28:12), which very well may have been what
Nathanael was meditating on under the fig tree. |
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