John 1:19–23John 1:19-23 (19) And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, "Who are you?" (20) He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, "I am not the Christ." (21) And they asked him, "What then? Are you Elijah?" He said, "I am not." "Are you the Prophet?" And he answered, "No." (22) 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?" (23) 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."
This is a very interesting and meaningful portion of scripture than can easily be dismissed as insignificant and irrelative to our lives today. During his ministry, John had many disciples and he had multitudes coming to him confessing their sins and seeking to be baptized. When an individual has this type of popularity and what we would refer to today as fame, the temptation to give into pride is great. John must have felt the tug of pride tempting him to take at least some of the glory that he was proclaiming as his own. We have a record of Satan tempting Jesus in this area, I know that I have been tempted in this area many times; I’m sure John was not impervious to it. He may have been tempted but he did not fall. Mark the first chapter, verses 4–8 record John’s view of his own assignment.
Mark 1:4-8(4) John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. (5) And all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. (6) Now John was clothed with camel's hair and wore a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey. (7) And he preached, saying, "After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. (8) I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit."
John viewed his assignment from the Lord’s perspective; not from his own, and not from the worlds, but from the Lord’s.
How often do we see today in the wider Body of Christ that men, whom God has called to serve Him, end up serving themselves? Pastors push the Lord aside to build great buildings that by design don’t look like churches, they structure services to attract the masses and not offend anyone by teaching too long, teaching about the sinfulness of man, or the need for the blood of Jesus. Worship songs are constructed without the use of minor keys because they don’t make people “feel” good, and the words are watered down to eliminate anything about God that the masses might not find palatable. All of these things draw people closer to whom, God? No, these are specifically designed to draw the masses to the people who are leading them.
There is a flip side to this temptation also; just as we can over-inflate our calling, we can under-inflate it also. One example in our society today that comes to mind is women who choose to spend all or the majority of their time making a home, caring for their husbands, and teaching and training their children—homemakers. It is a sad but true commentary that these women are not honored, revered, and justly rewarded by our society; they are mocked, ridiculed, and treated as lower-class citizens. An even sadder testimony is that the Church generally treats them the same as society does. What an overwhelming temptation it must be for these courageous women to buy into the lie and feel lowly about themselves; to be embarrassed to say what they do out loud, or to make excuses.
John the Baptist gave us a model of the perfect balance between not thinking too highly or too lowly of our calling. He modeled for us viewing our assignments from the Lord’s perspective.
Another very interesting element of this portion of scripture is that the priests and Levites were not able to determine who John was by the scriptures; or at least they did not suggest that to him if they had thought of it. They were in the unique position as men educated in the scriptures to not only discern who he was but to testify from the scriptures of his legitimacy. Again, how often do we see this same scenario being played out in today’s church environments. God’s Word is watered-down, manipulated, or out-right ignored, because it does not line-up with the objectives of those in leadership.
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