"What Are You Looking For?" Sermon: John 1:19-28

“What Are You Looking For?”
[John 1:19-28]
March 25, 2010 Old First Presbyterian Church (Newark)

What are you looking for? Why did you come to worship this afternoon? What did you expect? Did you come expecting to meet with God, to hear a pastor, to hear his views on life, or did you come because you had nothing better to do?

The Pharisees heard that John the Baptist, Jesus’ cousin, had come out of the wilderness and was baptizing people in Bethany across the Jordan, and they wanted answers: they wanted to know who gave him the authority to baptize. Only the Sanhedrin – the council of the Pharisees – had the authority to allow someone to baptize. Unless – unless – this John was someone special. So, the Pharisees sent a group of priests and Levities to find out.

“Who are you?” They went right to the point when they met up with John: “Who are you that you have the authority to baptize? Don’t you know that baptizing someone for the forgiveness of sin is something that is reserved for the Pharisees – they are the ones who have been trained and have the liturgy and the right to perform baptisms. Who are you?”

The Pharisees had wondered if the Christ – the Savior of Israel might have come among them. They were under great oppression from the Roman government, and here was this strange young man – who certainly looked like he might be a prophet – “Now John wore a garment of camel’s hair and a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey” (Matthew 3:4, ESV). And he was preaching repentance, and the people were flocking to him: “Then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan were going out to him, and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins” (Matthew 3:5-6, ESV). Maybe John was the Savior who would overthrow the Roman government and set them free.

John knew what they were thinking, so when they asked, “Who are you?” He responded, “I am not the Christ.”

“Not the Christ – not the Christ. Alright, are you Elijah?” They had remembered the words of the prophet Malachi, “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction” (Malachi 4:5-6, ESV) The Pharisees understood Malachi to be prophesying that the self-same Elijah would return to the sky from which the whirlwind carried him off of this earth before the Savior came.

“Are you Elijah?” “I am not.”

And we might want to jump in and question John at this point – “Didn’t Gabriel say that you are Elijah, John?” Not really. What Gabriel said, and Jesus would later repeat, is that John “will go before [the Savior] in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared” (Luke 1:17, ESV).

So, no, John was not Elijah, the prophet who prophesied during the days of Ahab and Jezebel, but he was Elijah in the sense that he fulfilled Malachi’s prophecy. So John wasn’t lying; he was answering their question, which was if he was the prophet Elijah returned from the whirlwind.

“Are you the Prophet?” Here again, they were asking if John was the fulfillment of prophesy, specifically, when Moses told the people, “The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers – it is to him you shall listen – “ (Deuteronomy 18:15, ESV). Could John be the promised prophet who was like Moses?

“Are you the prophet?” “No.” (We know that Jesus actually fulfilled this prophecy.)

They had had enough of John’s short answers: “Well, who are you? If we don’t come back with an answer, we’re going to be in trouble. Explain who you are.”

So John told them, he was the fulfilment of another prophecy, “I am the voice of the one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as the prophet Isaiah said.” “I am the forerunner of the Savior; I am the one who is preparing His way.”

The priests and the Levites were still confused, “If you are not the Savior or Elijah or the Prophet, then by what authority to you baptize?”

Did you notice that John doesn’t answer their question? Instead he said, “I baptize with water, but among you stands one you do not know, even he who comes after me, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.”

John said, “You’re focusing on the wrong thing! Yes, I’m baptizing without the approval of the Sanhedrin. Yet I have told you that I am the forerunner of the Savior, and the Savior is here, among you, and you haven’t recognized Him. You’re obsessing over my popularity and my baptizing when there is One among you – the Savior – Who you are ignoring, Who is so much greater than I am that I am not worthy to untie His sandal.”

We can get like the priests and the Levites, can’t we – obsessing over real but minor things and missing the big picture – missing the important thing.

Some people come to worship to get a “pick me up.”

Some people come to worship to relax.

Some people come to worship to criticize the way things are done – or to challenge the pastor.

Some people come to worship for company.

Some people come to worship to let others know what good people they are.

Some people come to worship because they like the music and the singing, or the sacraments, or the tradition, or the cute woman that sits in the second row.

What are you looking for this afternoon? Why have you come to this worship service?

The priests and the Levites came to John to challenge his baptizing. They should have come to hear about the Savior – to be led to Him – to know Him and to receive salvation from Him – to worship Him and give Him thanks.

And that is what we should be looking for when we come into the sanctuary – into the worship service. We come – first and foremost – to know and worship our God and Savior – to give Him thanks and to commune with Him through the reading and preaching of the Word of God and through the sacraments.

What we should be looking for in the worship service is Jesus. We should be looking for Him because He Alone is God Incarnate, Who lived and died and rose and ascended back to His Throne at the Right Hand of the Father. It is He Alone Who grants salvation to all those who will believe in Him Alone. It is Jesus Who gives us His Grace in worship that we might grow and be able to do all those things He has called us to do.

The priests and the Levites missed Jesus by focusing on John and what He was doing to prepare the way. Don’t be distracted. Come looking for Jesus, the Savior; He has promised that all who seek Him will find Him.

Let us pray:
Almighty God, we thank You for sending John and all of the other prophets before him that we might recognize Jesus. Keep us from pride and distraction, and keep us focused on Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith. For it is in Jesus’ Name we pray, Amen.