Gospel of John 09.vp

Sess ion 2: The Word Made F l esh, Glory and S igns , and the New Bi r th 35

1. “Who are you?” “ I am not the Christ ,” 1.20.

2. “Are you Elijah?” “ I am not ,” 1.21a (cf. Mal. 4.5-6 – “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. [6] And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.”)

3. “Are you the Prophet?” “ No ,” 1.21b (cf. Deut. 18.15 – The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen.)

4. His real identity: the voice crying in the wilderness , 1.22-23. Isa. 40.3 – A voice cries: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.”

5. A question of authority: If you are neither the Messiah, Elijah, or the Prophet, why do you baptize?

a. Questioned John’s authority and therefore his legitimacy

b. John’s reply: “One among you, whom you don’t know, who will follow me is so worthy I am not fit to untie his sandal,” 1.26-28.

B. John’s testimony regarding Jesus as the Lamb of God ( Jesus is the fulfillment of the entire Levitical and sacrificial system associated with the Temple ), 1.29-34