I think I'm just... Hey, let's start in Psalm 2. There's Dan, the man. Come on in! The water's fine. We're just getting started. There's a little handout there for you if you'd like it. Kevin, you read Psalm 2 for us and then open us in a word of prayer. Twelve verses there, I think. Just look at me and I'll remember. It's almost 2. and the people's plot in vain. The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His anointed Son. Let us burst their bonds of heart and cast away their cords from us. He who sits in the heavens laughs, and the Lord holds them in derision. Then He will speak to them in His wrath and terrify them in His furious name. As for me, I have set my king on Zion, my holy hill. I will tell of the decree the Lord said to me, you are my son, today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will make nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron, and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. Now therefore, O kings, be wise. Be warned, O rulers of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice in the trembling. Kiss the sun, let he be angry, and you perish in the way. For His wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in Him. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for this day. Thank you for giving us this time to worship and learn about your Word, especially John. Please help us to have an open mind and an open heart so you can Amen. Okay, so by way of introduction, Sinclair Ferguson taught a Wednesday night deal on how to read the Bible. Sorry, Rich. He says a lot of things in that. He's got a 14-page handout that goes with it. It's a one-hour message. I got so excited about it. I burned four copies, so anybody who wants it can take it with them. But he says things like this, you don't learn how to read the Bible by not reading the Bible. And you don't learn how to read the Bible by listening to somebody tell you how to read the Bible. What do you think he's saying? He's saying read the Bible. Yeah. He says don't try to look under it. Don't try to look over it for something that will knock their socks off. He says just see what the text is actually saying. Read before the passage of the inscription. Read after. bring it all together, so read a lot. And then he also says, dig deep one verse at a time. There's so much here in that one-hour thing that's to be helpful to the layperson like me, reading the Bible and trying to understand it. Hence, these CDs, please take them. And if you want the 14-page handout, I can point you to it. A few of the things he says quickly is you have to keep the big picture in mind. And he lays out what he calls the biggest story, the bigger story, and the big story. And we don't have time to get way into that, but this morning, at least, The biggest story, you have the Garden of Eden, where Adam is. This whole cosmos is created so that Adam is at the middle of it with Eve, and he's in the temple garden to be with God. And if you go to the end, Revelation, God fixes things, if you will, and puts man back in a new temple garden. That's the biggest story. And then he breaks that down into a bigger and a big story. Very, very helpful as you get into just one passage. Hence the challenge, right? To read John in one week, three chapters a day, 21 chapters in a week. So that as we dwell in here in this class, deep into John, you have the context of the big picture of John. So I would reissue that challenge to you. One last thing about Ferguson's little one-hour seminar there. He goes into the different types of literature in the Bible, right? Because the Bible's a book. And you've got to know, are you reading prophecy? Are you reading narrative? What are you doing? And one thing he says about the Gospels that just kind of made my blood stand still for a second. And the Gospels are a narrative of sorts. But he says, you know what we do? We look for ourselves in the Gospels. We're not very good at looking for Jesus, because we're selfish. And then he goes on, this is the point that kind of made me go, whoa. He said, you know, we can talk for a lot longer to friends, people, about ourselves than we can about who Jesus is. That gave me great pause and it also made me think of, Colby last week, when I kind of opened it up and said, who, you know, you've been reading through this and what struck you taking the whole thing together? And she said, the identity of Jesus Christ. And that is what Ferguson is saying. And we're going to see that theme here today. Another theme that you'll see throughout John, and we're going to see it today, is flesh versus spirit. We as humans think in the flesh. We see things and material in each other's skin and hair. We don't think in the spirit. And John the Apostle is challenging us to do that. Lastly, the other place that led me was back to an email I received from a certain mentor of mine, otherwise known as a pastor, who said, look, when you read the Bible, sometimes we miss the meaning. I think this is exactly what Ferguson was getting at by trying to identify with characters. Like, how can I be John the Baptist, maybe? I mean, there's certain aspects you can learn from that, but we take it too far. Instead, identify with the audiences. So this morning, Our passage that we're looking at specifically from chapter 3 in here, wait, referred to in here in chapter 3, is specifically John 1, 29 to 34, although we're going to probably end up reading back verse 19 as well for some context. And what we need to do instead of trying to necessarily identify with different people in the story is think about the audiences. And there's two audiences we're going to look at this morning as we go through this. One is John the Baptist audience. You have to put yourself out there by the Jordan, camel hair and leather belt. Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. And think about the people he's talking to. And then secondly, this is where it can get confusing, so we have to keep the full names here. That's John the Baptist. And then secondly, we have to think about John the Apostle's audience. So in, you know, 80, as in Alpha Delta 80, 80, as in the number 80 or 90 or whatever it was that he wrote, we have to bring that in. Who is he writing to? And we'll try to answer those questions as we go. through it this morning. Okay, so last week, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Today we're going to center on verses 30 to 34. We're going to read 19 through 34, and I've given you a handout that we're going to read from, and I'd like to introduce you to that handout very briefly. I kind of broke the passage down from 19 to 34, and it was very helpful and made some things just show up, letting the Bible say what it says, at least for me, and hopefully we can get into that together this morning. John the Apostle starts the prologue, and then he says, the next day, so you're, you're, or, forgive me, it doesn't say the next day, it says, and this is the testimony of John. And that's the first day that's happening, the actual day, the actual narrative of events in the gospel of John, verse 19. And then verse 29, you have the next day, so we have two days, and I've split the paper left and right, first day and second day, and then I've split it into the conversation. So on the left side, day one, you have the conversation, John the Baptist is on the left, The delegation of priests and Levites is on the right. And then on the second day, it looks a little bit different for a reason, doesn't it? Only John the Baptist is talking. And so you see that right away. I've also split out dialogue from just narrative. The gray is the narrative. And so as we read through, maybe we'll see some things that will help us see Jesus. So, Let's read through it. Steve Jerebeck, you are going to be the narrator. So verse 19, 20, 24, 32, 29, the ones that are in gray are yours. Yeah? All right. Nick, you are John the Baptist. You have a lot of reading to do. Because Aussies wear weird things. Dan, not based on your character, but merely your proximity, would you please represent the delegation, the priests and the Levites. So basically the right side of the first day. Let's read it together, and I guess Steve will start us. And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, who are you? He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed. I am not the Christ. And they asked him, what then? Are you Elijah? He said, I am not. Are you the prophet? And he answered, no. So they said to him, who are you? We need to give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself? He said, I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness. Make straight the way of the Lord, as the prophet Isaiah said. Now they had consent from the Pharisees. They asked him, Then why are you baptizing, if you are neither the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the prophet? John answered them, I baptize with water, but among you stands one who do not know, even he who comes after me, the strapper whose sandal I am not worthy to untie. These things took place in Bethany, across the Jordan, where John was baptized. The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. This is He of whom I said, After me comes a man who ranks before me, because he was before me. I myself did not know him, but for this purpose I came baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to Israel. And John bore witness. I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God. Okay, so we've got the narrative and the dialogue in the context of John the Baptist's audience, and then we have this thing that kind of splits it out day by day. John the Apostle's audience, as he records what happened, leaves some things out, adds other, he doesn't add stuff in, but you know what I'm trying to say. And so we'll kind of look. at it from that perspective as we go through verse by verse and we are centering today on the right side of the page last week we did behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world and today we're going to pick it up in verse 30 but we have to say looking at the right side of the page that there was only one event that's recorded in verses 29 to 34 that actually in terms of action, not speech, but action that took place on that day. Notice all those boxes are dotted. They're past tense. Only one thing happened that day. What was the thing that changed? What was different between day one and day two? That's driving all this speech, all this action. Jesus shows up. The next day he saw Jesus coming towards him and he says, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. So he points. And we went over that last week. And then he reflects back past tense and says a whole bunch of things. And that's what we're going to get into today. So verse 30, this is he of whom I said, After me comes a man who ranks before me because he was before me. Let's take a look at John the baptizer's audience. Ranks before me. What other places that we read in John does that make you think of? You can answer that question or you could just say, what does he mean by that? Back in the prologue, there's this little clause, I can't remember if it's parenthetical or not, but John the Apostle is saying, this is the guy, John the Baptist, who said, Jesus was before me. Even though I come before him in time, I'm here baptizing and there Jesus just showed up. Jesus was before me. Back in the prologue, right? The word that was there in the beginning and it created. Okay, and then yesterday, day one on our little sheet, verse 26. Strap of whose sandal I am unworthy to untie. So John is showing deference to Jesus. by saying, he who reigns before me. Well, I've got another question for you. If you look at the Gospels, John the Baptist is referred to as John the Baptist. Think about that relative to the rest of the Bible. Usually in the Bible, when somebody is mentioned, if they have a really weird name, they might just mention the name. But if they have a common name, you usually get a lot of stuff around that name so that you know who he's talking about, like a genealogy, or so-and-so from such-and-such a place. How is it that the Gospels can just say John the Baptist, and everybody knows, in John the Apostle's time, in the post-Christ time when the Gospels are being written, that he's talking about John, the son of Zechariah, is that right? Yeah, and Elizabeth, John the baptizer. What do you think? Yeah, I think there's John Mark who wrote the Gospel of Mark that the pastor's taken us through. We've got John the Apostle. There's a lot of Johns in New Testament. Yeah, and we talked about this a week or two ago. Remember that he is baptizing, and you know, like I said earlier, I grew up in Calvary Baptist Church, so like somebody baptizing this, whatever. But to them, they're used to this proselyte baptism, where if a Gentile wants to become a Jew, they need to be washed. But now John the Baptist is looking at the Jews and saying, come and be baptized, repent. And of course, they're like, what? And so this is a big deal. So that's what makes him easily distinguishable. Please, Colby. Yeah, I think you're right on it. I think one of the reasons they are attracted to John the Baptist is because he's telling Jews, make straight the way of the Lord. Come and be baptized. Repent. Dude, I've got Abraham as my father. What are you talking about? I don't need to repent. I'm a Jew. So, I think you're exactly on to it. Now, there's something else that is striking, too, is he's the one who baptized Jesus, right? And we're going to talk more about that this morning. Okay, let's turn and consider John the Apostle's audience now. Way back in the very beginning, we were kind of considering the big picture of the Gospel of John. It's important for John to know that he assumes that we've read Matthew, Mark, and Luke. He wrote John the Gospel much later. And that's why parables aren't in there. There's so much stuff that's not in John. He kind of centers it on other things. So when maybe John the Apostle's audience is reading his gospel, he's saying, hey, I think these guys have already read, they already know about Jesus' baptism in accounts in the other gospels. And we're going to look at some of those because it's going to be important for today. Let's move on for now, though, to verse 31. I myself did not know him, but for this purpose I came baptizing with water that he might be revealed to Israel. It's kind of a weird verse, isn't it? I myself did not know him. What do you think he means by know? I'll give you a couple of hints from the Greek stuff. To regard with favor, to understand, the tense that it's written in is, I had not previously known him. By implication, I know him now. But I had not previously known him. Why does he say he did not know who Jesus was? Possibility. It's not recorded in John that way, but I mean, he doesn't talk specifically about that, but maybe so. He didn't know who the Messiah was. He knew he was preparing for the Messiah, but he didn't know who that would be. He hadn't specifically identified him yet. Let's hold on to that. The idea is going to show up again in verse 33. We'll come back to it. But for now, let's look at the but. But for this purpose, I came baptizing with water that he might be revealed to Israel. So remember day one, right? When they asked him, why are you baptizing? He said, I baptize with water, but One stands among you who you don't know. So yesterday he's telling these guys, you know, you don't realize that the Messiah is here. Today he says, he kind of expands it and tells them why he's baptizing, that they might be revealed to Israel. Now, why does he say, what do you think? That they might be, or maybe, sorry, that he might be, or may be revealed to Israel. Why didn't he say, I'm baptizing that he is revealed to Israel? Yeah, so the problem's not with Jesus. The problem's with people. Right? In sin, if you go to the Matthew account, you know, you've got the beginning of John the Baptist speaking to the crowds as far as John the Apostle is concerned. You go to Matthew, I think the first words out of his mouth are, you brood of vipers, who warned you? Yeah, I think it's kind of this, look, here's what I'm here to do. I'm here to point you to Christ. Behold the Lamb of God. Do you see him for who he is? Are you just looking with flesh? This is that weird dude from Nazareth, wherever those people are. Or do you see him as the son of God? I can read this a little bit differently on the mic, so you can chastise me if I'm wrong, but kind of what I'm saying is a humility or a subjection to the authority of the one who is in charge of this process. So he is yielding to God and God's purpose here. It's perfect. Let's take that right into revealed. that he might be revealed to Israel. John the Baptist is talking about Jesus and he's saying that he might be revealed to Israel. It's a passive voice. Is there anything passive about Jesus? The one who in the beginning of the gospel was in the beginning of time. Nothing was made that wasn't made through him. Is there anything passive about Jesus? Folks will talk about the active work of Jesus and the passive work of Jesus. He actively lived the perfect life we cannot. What did he do passively? Can you picture him on the cross? There you go. In humility, he took on flesh. And as God's only beloved and perfect son, who lived a perfect life, he gave himself up to let man slaughter him. And that was passive work in that he's revealed. All right, John the Apostle's audience. Here's where we need to look at the structure, if you will, of the passage of verses 19 to 34, because we're looking at John the Apostle's audience. And if they're reading this gospel, remember we said that we kind of assume that he's read His audience has read the other Gospels, but when we look specifically here, I came baptizing with water in verse 31. What other parts of this passage should we look at immediately? He mentions baptism with water three times. John the Apostle does. The first one is on day one, when the Jews ask him, why are you baptizing? See, they're looking at John the Baptist. Where do you get your authority? What is this stuff? Why are you baptizing? Jews, especially. And he points to Christ, and he doesn't answer their question. Day two, now I've got to be honest, I don't even know if those guys were there on day two. But now he answers their question. You look at the handout there, verse 31 and verse 33, Both of those, am I in the right place? Yes, both of those show that John the Baptist was sent to baptize with water. But what's in the middle? Right between those two verses. And when did the Spirit descend on Jesus? Jesus is baptism. So I think John the Apostle, in writing it this way, is really setting us up to go, hey, what do we got in John the Baptist's baptism, but really the supremacy of Christ, and how is his different? And with that, we go to verse 32. No, we don't. What do we do? Sorry. Thank you. Thanks. I'm back on track. I think. Yeah, so the Jews' question yesterday was kind of, who are you to baptize the Jews? Maybe their question should have been, John, why are you baptizing us? Is there something wrong with us? And he points to Christ. So verse 32, I saw the Spirit descend like... from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him." And this is the central event, I think, on this day in John's Gospel, the baptism of Jesus. Like we just said, it's tied to verse 31, 32, so now we've got to go look at Jesus' baptism. Briefly. Somebody grab Mark 1, 9-11. Somebody else, Matthew 3, 13-17. We could probably all turn there together. Let's go to Mark first. Yes, sir, we sure are. Mark 1, 9 through 11. This is Mark's account of the baptism. Whoever's got it open and wants to read it, go ahead. In those days, Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John, Jordan. And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. and a voice came from heaven, you are my beloved son, with you I am well pleased. Did I say Mark? I meant Matthew. I think I said Matthew. I meant Matthew 2. Turn to Mark. So let's go to John the Baptist's audience. You're there, flying the wall, watching the baptism. Who are the, all caps, major, important, in-your-face players in the baptism of Jesus? Jesus, that's easy. If you listen to these accounts, though, John fades to the background. It doesn't say that John took Jesus by the hand, asked him to kneel in the bank. I don't know how he did it, so I'm just making this up. And then John took his hand in the water and brought up the water. You don't see any of that. It just says John baptized Jesus. And then what does it say? What does it recount? Who are the major players? Jesus? The Spirit and the Father, it's the Trinity. So MacArthur calls this Jesus's inauguration or his coronation and it's manifested in two ways. One of the two ways that Jesus's coronation is manifested to the people. Think of your five senses and don't include smell or taste because it's not in the gospel. Okay, so sound. One of the ways that this coronation happens is through word. And who speaks? God the Father. Can you imagine what that would be like? The heavens being torn open and this voice from heaven saying, this is my Son with whom I am well pleased. What's the second way? The Spirit of God descended on Jesus in a visible manner that everybody could see. Luke 3.21, it says, and this is Luke's account of the baptism. You are my beloved son, with you I am well pleased. That is directly tied back to Psalm 2. Boy, I'd love to just go through Psalm 2 with you in more detail. That is, in Jewish tradition, a messianic psalm. And if you follow little footnotes in your Bible from these accounts of the baptisms, it's going to take you back to that psalm, where, right in the middle of it... Okay, really briefly. Four parts of the psalm. First part, why do the nations rage? The last part is, hey nations, stop raging. Serve the Lord. The second part right here is this chunk of God the Father speaking, and I laugh at these nations that are raging, because I have appointed my king. And if you look carefully, and I didn't notice this in my first, second, third, or fourth reading, until I read a commentary, but it's Jesus that's speaking in the third part, because he says, I will tell the decree. The Lord said to me, You are my son, today I have begotten you. Now it gets really interesting. Well, let me say, by the way, Ferguson's little thing on how to read the Bible, he talks about the different types of literature, one of them is the Psalms, and he says, when you read the Psalms, think of a U-shape or a parabola, and sure enough, you can see it right here. These are connected. These are connected, and in the middle is Jesus. Hey! Okay, but here's where it gets even better. Acts doesn't refer kind of in twisted cryptic language to this psalm. It cites it specifically in chapter 4. And then again in chapter 13 it cites what Jesus said. And it makes it abundantly clear that this right here is about the crucifixion, the nation's raging, and this right here is about the resurrection. And it's interesting that between those is God laughing, saying, I've appointed my king. Well, the Jews who were receiving this, maybe hearing this, this word being spoken, seeing John the Baptist say he is the son of God, tie it back to that, and I think come full circle. Back, though, to Jesus' baptism. The Son of God, Psalm 2. You know what this made me think of? We've got this messianic psalm, and the Jews study the sacred writings, which is what we have as the Old Testament. What would John the Baptist know about sacred writings? Is he connected to people that know that stuff? He's connected in a different way. What's that? He's connected in a different way. How? Well, he's out in his desert on his own, and he's sort of commuting. He was brought up, I mean, so there's a heritage there. When I, when I, when I, I mean I missed it over and over again and finally I was like, he's the son of Zachariah. Who's Zachariah? Well, he's not just any priest. There's lots of priests. High priest. He's a ninja among priests. You think John the Baptist knew what was in Psalm 2? I have a feeling he might have. Okay, so guys, here's where the rubber meets the road here in this passage from John. We looked at John's baptism. We looked at that day one. We looked at the prologue. John's baptism was a baptism of repentance. It was a baptism with water. Why on earth, why in heaven, would Jesus need to be baptized? Does Jesus need to repent? Remember that when Jesus came up to John and said, baptize me in the Matthew account, what did he say? He said, no, you should baptize me. Why did Jesus need to be baptized? I think you're right on, Colby. I think that's a major part of it. This is his public coronation. This is the beginning of Jesus's ministry. This is the first time he's no longer just a carpenter that has a few friends or whatever. And I guess he goes to the synagogue when he's 12 or 13, and maybe ruffles some feathers there. But this is the beginning of his public ministry. He goes from here into the wilderness to be tempted, and then he starts his ministry. So it's very important. This has become a big, visible, done-by-God thing for man. Absolutely. I think there's some more to it, though. Why else do you think Jesus needed to be baptized? It's an anointing. Okay, expand on it. This is, I mean you said it's his coronation. Priests and kings were anointed. Prophets in one sense were anointed with the spirit. Here's Jesus coming to the son of the high priest. The high priest was the one who anointed the king. He was appointed to come and anoint the king. We still see it in England. And so, Jesus is coming to be anointed. It is his public coronation of his, the beginning of the kingdom of God. It gives chills to talk about. Yeah. In Psalm 2, some of the other cross references, excuse me, take you somewhere, 1st, 2nd Samuel, 7, 5, I can't remember, but it's David's coronation, David's anointing. And of course, you know what David symbolically represents in the prophecy of the Old Testament pointing towards the fullness of Christ in the New Testament. There's also the Isaiah 11 prophecy that's being fulfilled, where Jesse, the spirit of God's descending, anointed. So it's all tied together. And if you're watching this, you're going, wow. All these prophecies are going off in your head, going, wow. Yeah. Yeah. I love it, Nick. You know, like I do every week, I struggle to go, OK, and I start lining out scripture, because it's just time. But that was one. Something that I think it was Phillips that brought out was also, symbolically identifying Jesus with sinners. John the Baptist is saying to the Jews, guess what? You might have Abraham as your father, and you might come from Moses, but you still have a black heart, and you still need to be baptized and turn to Jesus. And in that way, no, Jesus does not have a black heart, and no, he does not need to repent, but in symbolically, I think what he's getting at is that, well, here, you could ask it this way. If we're gonna symbolically identify Jesus with sinners, then you just say, well, why does Jesus need to die? Right? Because he didn't sin. tied to the cross in that way for us. Baptized for us, baptized for Israel so that they could see Him. Okay, now let's go back and let's read verses 31 through 32 again. Pete, would you do that for us? John chapter 1, 32 through 33. I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove and remain on earth. I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize him for all that he said to me. He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is He who baptizes with Holy Spirit. I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God." This is He who sent me? Who's the He? God. Somebody turn to Luke 3. You got it, Nick, read it to us. Luke 3, 2. During the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the Word of God came to John, the son of Zechariah, in the wilderness. The Word of God comes to John, and what does the Word of God say to John? Don't look in Luke, look back in John. Verse 33. Okay, now I think it's worth asking the question. And this is this is from from Phillips here in chapter three. Now, what was the foundation for john the baptist witness, if he stands up there in the river and says, behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the sin of the world? What is the foundation for his witness? What empowers him in confidence to say that? God's Word. The foundation of his witness is God's Word. And I think that's the message Phillips is trying to share with us. Because God told him, the person whom you've seen the Spirit descend on, that is he who baptizes with the Spirit. That is the Messiah. That is the one who baptizes with the Spirit, unlike you, who baptizes just with the water, which is John the Apostle's message, I think, or at least a big part of it. OK, back to where Pete's been wanting us to go, rightfully so. If you look back at the handout twice, John the Baptist says, I did not know Him. Right? Verse 31 and verse 33. And what's right in the middle of those two verses? Verse 32. And that's the whole point. That's the hinge this whole thing turns on. I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on Him." John the Baptist is being a witness and saying, I saw that happen. Notice, too, he doesn't say, hey, I'm the one who got to baptize Jesus. In John the Apostle's account, that's not even included in there. It just says simply, I saw the Spirit of God descend on him like a dove and it remained on him. So let's go back to that question then, this whole thing about did John the Baptist know him or not? At what point did he know him? What are your thoughts? confused with this because it sounds like he doesn't know him and then he's revealed when the spirit descends but yet in time it seems like he says, well, my god, he's going to send the world, which would imply that maybe he does know him. And then also in the other accounts, he says he's not going to baptize him because it's not worthy. And the spirit descends after he's baptized, or during the process. Well, remember that in the account here, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, and that everything he sells, I think he's recounting past tense. So I think the chronology of actual time and event is the baptism of Jesus, and then later on, John the Apostle says, behold the Lamb of God. But I understand the confusion, too, because, you know, is Jesus walking up the first time yet? Calvin helped me out some with this, and he calls it confirmation. For a lot of the reasons you just stated, if when John first met Jesus, he had no clue who he was, like zero at all, then it would be kind of weird for Jesus to say, hey, baptize me, and him to say, whoa, I need to be baptized by you. So he knew something. And weren't they related? They probably wouldn't have just known. Thank you. I don't even need an outline. You guys just keep talking, because it's just going right with... So yeah, let's go back to when John the Baptist and Jesus first met. Anybody want to recount that story? John leapt in the womb. Yeah. Why did John leap in the womb? I think that S word is right where this whole passage is centered on. The Spirit of God. Go back and read sometime that account and see where the word Spirit shows up. Even God uses that kind of language, though, that kind of confirmation type language. And one of the times that he speaks, I mean, he speaks three times, you pointed out last week, of Jesus. And one of the times he says, this is my son, today I've become his father. It's like, what? Today? He became this eternal, I mean, there are, I mean, we do that. We use that kind of language of, all right, so now I know you love me. It's like, well, are you that shallow that you didn't know before the rings and the flower and the restaurant? No, it's just now you've done something that really revealed. Now I know that I know. And so it's it's more of a. So, yeah, you can be told all along that Jesus is the Christ, that Jesus is the Christ. And it's all in the Bible. I mean, if all you needed was God's word. Everyone would be saved. The Bible's out there. I mean, I got 20 Bibles on my shelf. That doesn't make me more saved. But the Spirit showing up, enlivening, shows us more than what we would have known without the Spirit. I struggled with this because with the whole pivot point, the whole point of this whole thing is that Jesus baptizes with the Spirit and not me. Remember how we started with John the Baptist? How could he just get away with being written down as John? Because he was the big character at that time to the Jews, to everybody, not Jesus. And now, you know, that Jesus may increase and I may decrease. Now John is shifting all the lenses and lights to Jesus and pointing that direction. And the big confirmer was that baptism with the Holy Spirit. And then in addition to that, you get the idea of the Holy Spirit. And he goes, maybe we could do some of that next week. But all the things that the Holy Spirit does, I mean, we teach years of reading and classes on that alone. But I think that's where I left this passage, was with the flesh and the spirit. We are so caught up in the flesh that we don't see the spirit. I think it's Doug Wilson constantly talks about in a Christian's life and the pattern of the Bibles is death and resurrection, death and resurrection, death and resurrection, where we climb the mountain and worship and we see the face of God, and yet we go back and the flesh is weak, but the spirit is willing kind of a thing. And we need the Word of God back in our lives through the Spirit to bring us back to Jesus over and over again until the final culmination. So here, the baptism of Jesus confirmed to John that yes, Jesus is the Christ, confirms it to him, and then it also reveals Jesus to Israel. Some great stuff in the book, go read it, from 1 John 3.5 and 1 John 3.8 about Jesus' twofold purpose for being here. And then he kind of expounds on the spirits involved in that. And obviously one is, verse 29, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. He takes away your sin. But then secondly, he gives you freedom from sin. I think the idea is kind of justification and sanctification. We have to wrap this up, though, and we'll finish with verse 34. And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God." So, John the Baptizer's audience, he finishes this. I think in verse... I lost track in the Bible. I think the next verse, 35, isn't it? Isn't it a new day in John the Apostles? Yeah, the next day. Okay, so this section is kind of finished with And I've seen that born witness that this is the Son of God So you've got the speech from John the Baptist on this day. And what does he start with? You hold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world Everybody thought of the sacrifice and the substitute and then he finishes with kind of right back to Psalm 2 This is the Messiah. This is the anointed one this is the Son of God. So, John the Apostle's audience, Colby last week, right? The whole gospel is about Jesus' identity and it runs throughout the whole thing. There are just multitudinous examples of it. It is absolutely a major theme in this gospel. Over and over, either Jesus is saying, I'm the Son of God, or people are pointing at Him and saying, there's the Son of God. Whether you're in the prologue, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We have seen His glory. Glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. You go to John 1.49. We're going to get there next week, week after. This guy, Nathanael, shows up. He sees Jesus and looks Him in the face and says, You are the Son of God, the King of Israel. I think there's some spirit at work there. Chapter 10, chapter 5, there's tension, but I want to leave it with John's theme. Somebody go to chapter 20 verses 30 and 31. So this, now context-wise, chapter 20, This is the end of his recount of the resurrection, and then 21 is kind of his gospel wrap-up, the restoration of Peter and stuff like that. So right as he transitions from resurrection to that stuff, he says, Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book, but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life. in His name. So the real sacrifice that turns away God's wrath from you is the Son of God, the Messiah. Him in the flesh right there. Can you see John the Baptist pointing? That guy. That's Him. So we need to see Him, listen to Him, and believe Him. Transforming power of the Spirit. There's a lot there, but who else? It's just merely cold in here. Behold the Lamb of God. Nick, would you close us in prayer? Sure. Dear Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for John's gospel that has clearly helped us to understand it, helped us to challenge each other on it. We thank you that we can meet together regularly and read through it. Help us to be disciplined to do that this week. Help us to apply what we've learned today in our lives. In your Father's name, amen. Amen.