Sunday Gathering - John 1 : 19-28 - Chris Simpson - Sermon Only

Chris Simpson continues the John series in John 1:19-28, where a delegation of priests and temple assistants is sent from Jerusalem to interrogate John the Baptist. John has been preaching up and down the Jordan, calling people to make major changes in their lives, to be baptised and to receive forgiveness. He has become the celebrity preacher of the moment, and the religious establishment has noticed. The delegation is not friendly — it is almost like a trial, with John questioned like a witness by the barrister for the other side.

The question they put to him is “who are you?” — and Chris notes the irony that the passage is not directly about Jesus at all, yet John’s answers help us answer the same question for ourselves. John knows who he is partly by knowing who he is not: not the Messiah, not Elijah, not the Prophet. Chris observes how hard they are trying to pin a label on him, and how firmly he refuses it — an identity handed to us by other people either leaves us with imposter syndrome or grinds us down. John has accepted instead the label God gave him.

Chris works through the three things John does say about himself. He is a voice shouting in the wilderness, “clear the way for the Lord’s coming” — belonging to something far bigger than himself, and pointing at Jesus rather than at himself. In a celebrity culture that says “look at me”, John emphatically says “look at him”. He is a baptiser in water: pressed on his credentials, he answers that he simply does human things by human means, and if anything important happens through them it is down to God, not to him. And he is unworthy even to untie the strap of Jesus’s sandal — but unworthy compared to him, not unworthy in a vacuum. Chris uses that to separate healthy humility from self-pity, quoting C.S. Lewis that humility is self-forgetfulness: not thinking less of yourself, but thinking about yourself less.

Two threads tie it together. First, the delegation knew the Scriptures inside out and still missed the one standing in front of them — being a believer is not about knowing the answers but about being surprised by the God who is there. Second, the big deal is not about us. Chris illustrates with graves decorated as shrines to a football club: whatever ends up in first place becomes what defines you, and the dominant godless materialism of the West gives deeply inadequate answers to the question of identity. His point is not that football or family are wrong, but that they do not belong in first place — put first things first and second things get healthier.

Bible passages

• John 1:19-28 — the passage for the morning, read aloud
• Isaiah 40:3 — “a voice shouting in the wilderness, clear the way for the Lord’s coming”, John’s answer to who he is
• Deuteronomy 18:15-18 — the prophet like Moses, behind the question “are you the prophet we are expecting?”
• Malachi 4:5 (and 3:1) — the promise that Elijah would come before the Messiah
• Matthew 11:14 and 17:12, Mark 9:13, Luke 1:17 — Jesus identifying John as Elijah, which sits awkwardly with John’s own denial
• Matthew 18:20 — “where two or three are gathered in my name”, read as attention fixed on Jesus himself
• John 3:30 — “he must increase, I must decrease”, John’s answer as Jesus’s ministry grows
• Galatians 4:5 and Ephesians 1:5 — purchased and adopted into God’s family, alluded to in the closing application

Key points

• John is interrogated almost like a defendant, the delegation trying to pin him down
• He knows who he is partly by knowing who he is not — not Messiah, not Elijah, not the Prophet
• The puzzle of Elijah: John says no, Jesus says yes — either John was mistaken, or the identification is about the ministry not the man
• He is a voice: a voice matters only for the words it is asked to carry, and John is a signpost to Jesus
• He baptises with water — human means; anything powerful that comes of it is God’s doing, not his
• He is unworthy compared to Jesus, not in a vacuum; humility is self-forgetfulness, not a low opinion of yourself
• They knew the Hebrew Scriptures well enough to win a pub quiz, and still did not know God
• Faith is being open to what God wants to do, not knowing the answers
• The big deal is not about me; it is about him — which should come as a relief
• Identity is a gift, not something found in ourselves: purchased with the blood of his Son and adopted
• Whatever holds first place defines you, and Western materialism gives inadequate answers

Calls to action

• Answer the question for yourself: who are you, and where does your identity actually come from?
• Be open to being surprised by God rather than settling for knowing the answers
• Become a signpost that points at Jesus rather than at yourself
• Ask God’s forgiveness for failing to recognise him among us
• Look at what is in first place in your life, and put first things first

Watch the video: https://youtu.be/qBkUZqOsx64