Why Did John the Baptist Doubt Jesus?

Our topic for this segment is the gospel of salvation, and we’re going through certain verses in the gospel of John, which speak to the salvation we have in Christ.  Of particular concern are the verses which tell us who Jesus is, which is critically important to our understanding of the gospel.

Dave:

Because He’s the Savior, so it all depends upon who He is.

Tom:

Dave, I’m going to pick up with John1:24 and I’ll read through 28.  “And they which were sent were of the Pharisees.  And they asked him, and said unto him, Why baptizeth thou then, if thou be not that Christ, nor Elias, neither that prophet?  John answered them, saying, I baptize with water:  but there standeth one among you, whom ye know not;  He it is, who coming after me is preferred before me, whose shoe’s latches I am not worthy to unloose.  These things were done in Bethabara beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing.”  Dave, there is some really interesting thoughts here.

Dave:

Yeah, it’s, of course verse 24 is referring back to previous verses where they asked him if he’s the Christ, is he Elias, that prophet?  He says I am not.  So then they say, well, if you aren’t, why are you baptizing?  And we have 3 names here, Christ, Elias, who would come before the Christ, the forerunner, neither “that prophet.”  I think “that prophet” has to be the Christ.  The Messiah had to be prophet, priest and king.  But we read of “that prophet” in Deuteronomy 18, where Moses said that God would raise up a prophet like unto him, and him the people would hear.  And then of course, the book of Deuteronomy ends with the statement that there did not arise another prophet like unto Moses.  So, this was something they were looking forward to, and they knew that this great prophet had not come.  This is one who when He spoke, the people would give heed to him, and if they did not, God would judge them Deuteronomy 18 tells us.  So they think that these are three separate people.  In fact, they are two people: the Messiah, who is also the great prophet, and Elias.  And John says well, I baptize with water, but there’s One among you whom you don’t know, and I’m not even worthy to stoop down and undo his shoes.  Now, I don’t think that John at this time—in fact, I’m certain that John at this time did not know who the Messiah was.  How did he know the Messiah was there among them, among the people?  Because he had been called to be His forerunner, and he was preaching and baptizing in obedience to God’s Word, God’s command, and therefore he knew the Messiah must be there.  And we get on further—

Tom:

Well, before we get to 29, when he does discover this or at least, that’s the implication of this verse, Dave let’s back up a little bit.  We know that John the Baptist was related to Jesus.  We also know that, I don’t know how his memory was, but when Mary showed up and came into Elizabeth’s presence, they both were pregnant, and it says the child within leaped within her womb.

Dave:

But then Elizabeth, he was 6 months old.

Tom:

So, Elizabeth must have known things, and Mary.  Do you think they were separated to the point that, what I’m getting at here is, do you really think that John the Baptist didn’t know that his cousin was the Messiah to come?

Dave:

I would be certain of that from the very scriptures that we have in front of us.  He knew that Jesus had lived the perfect sinless life.  On the other hand, see when John the Baptist says to Jesus, when He comes to be baptized, “you ought to baptize me, I shouldn’t baptize you.”  Now if he is speaking from his understanding, from his experience, having observed his cousin, six months younger than he is, or is he speaking by revelation?  We don’t know, we don’t know that, but we do know that—well, we have to go on and read it, Tom.  I could quote it, well no; I want to go down to verse 33.  He says, “I knew Him not, but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and remaining on Him, the same is He which baptizes with the Holy Ghost.  And I saw and bear record; this is the Son of God.”  So you see, he did not know until when he baptized Jesus and Jesus came out of the water, here comes the Spirit descending like a dove, and then John says, I knew Him, because that was what God told me, that would be the sign.

Tom:

Dave, this is really insightful because sometimes we just think well you know, as I alluded to, John is the cousin of Jesus, and they were families together and so on.  In other words, I was looking at rationalizing this through a kind of in a human realm.  But what you’re telling us here, through the scriptures, God is revealing this.  John did not know, he was just obedient to God and did what God told him.  So this is out of the hands of men, this is God doing this.

Dave:

Well, you have the same thought in Matthew 16, and when Peter says, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God,” Jesus said, “Flesh and blood hath not revealed the Son to be, but my Father which is in heaven.”  So, on the one hand, and we need to emphasize it, and I love to emphasize it when I’m speaking if that’s the topic they allow me to speak on.  We have so many proofs, historic, prophetic, rational, logical proofs that Jesus is the Christ.  On the other hand, we can only understand and receive that by faith, as the Spirit of God reveals Him to us.  So we have two sides to this.  Now John, if we want to speculate, we could say he may have suspected that Jesus was the Messiah, because he must have observed his perfect, sinless life.  But he didn’t know, and he’s waiting for God to reveal it.  Now Tom, if we can launch out just a little bit because one thing leads to another.  It’s very interesting.  John the Baptist is filled with the Holy Ghost from his mother’s womb, that’s why the 6-month old fetus, he leaped with joy in the womb of his mother when he heard the voice of Mary saying she would be bearing the Lord.  He knows who he is; he tells him he’s the voice of one crying in the wilderness, he knows he’s the forerunner of the Messiah.  And now he sees the visible proof, the Holy Spirit descending like a dove, abiding upon Jesus, and there is a voice from heaven that says, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.”  So now he has not only inspired of the Holy Spirit, but he has visible evidence.  Then how could it be Luke 7, as you know, tells us that from prison he sent two of his disciples asking Jesus, “Art thou He that should come, or look we for another?”  How could his faith have been shaken to that extent?  I think it’s because he’s in prison, about to get his head cut off, and he doesn’t comprehend the kingdom of God.  He’s like the two on the road to Emmaus that Christ says “You fool, so hard to believe all the prophets have spoken.  Shouldn’t Christ have suffered, wasn’t he supposed to be crucified?  You thought he was going to take the throne of his father David right now.”  No, no, that’s not what this prophet said, and John the Baptist, Jesus says there is no greater prophet than he.  And yet he didn’t understand either.  He apparently thought that Christ would take the throne of David right then, and that, of course, he ought to be prime minister or something, having introduced him, and now he is in prison about to get his head cut off.

Tom:

Well, Dave, we talked earlier in the last segment when we were talking about Jeremiah:17:9The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
See All..., and in Jeremiah 23, we were talking about, within us on the one hand we have a heart seeking after truth because God calls us to do that.  On the other hand, we have a heart of the flesh.  Now, aside from some speculations that you made about why John may have been saying the things he said or—

Dave:

He doubted there’s no question about it.

Tom:

In other words, he’s just like us, we’re human, we  have these times in which we fall back, and there’s times we can speak the oracles of God, because God is using us, we’re His vessels.

Dave:

And what would have prevented him from being confused on this, the scriptures?  To know what the prophets have said, and he words it properly, “Art thou He that should come?”  Someone was coming, how would we know who He was, when he would be here, and so forth, what He would do?  The prophets foretold, and the prophets foretold that the Messiah would be crucified.  He would have to come back again to take His kingdom, and John, I think it’s quite clear, he didn’t understand that, and that must have been what caused him to lose his faith.  

Tom

Next week, Verse 29, we’ll pick it up.  “The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.”