Chapter # 1 Paragraph # 4 Study # 9
January 22, 2023
Broadlands, Louisiana
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Thesis: John's identity as "a voice crying out in the wilderness" is hyper-critical because of the extreme "crookedness" of the distortions of the highway of the Lord.
Introduction: In our last three studies of Author-John's record of the interaction by those who came from Jerusalem to quiz Witness-John about his identity, we have seen that he was adamant about the distance he kept from being wrongly identified. He emphatically denied that he was "The Christ". He totally rejected his being identified as "Elijah". And, he refused to accept any link between himself and the "office of prophet" for the purpose of enforcing the Mosaic Law.
Because of the strength of his refusals to be falsely identified, his interrogators asked one more "identity" question: what identity do you give yourself?
This morning we are going to be very brief regarding his statement regarding his self-identity because of the critical nature of his claim. That claim requires more than a quick perusal, so my intention is to come back to it in the weeks to come.
Author-John considered it important for his readers to see the "setting" of John's self-identity; thus, we shall give some serious thought this morning to this "setting" into which John's self-identity falls.
- I. Witness-John's Self-Identity.
- A. From the interrogators' point of view, they had asked all of the "important" questions: Christ; Elijah; The Prophet.
- B. But, from Author-John's point of view, the really "important" question was the one they probably should have asked first.
- 1. Author-John first recorded that their question was: Who are you?
- 2. Then he refined the essence of their question: What do you say of yourself?
- C. Witness-John's answer was a claim that he was the fulfillment of Isaiah 40:3; "The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, make straight the way of the LORD".
- 1. The underlying reality of this claim is inescapable: "the way of the Lord" has been significantly twisted so that it is very difficult to walk upon it.
- 2. This claim falls upon the ears of the interrogators as a powerful condemnation of "the way" that those in Jerusalem have twisted "the way of the Lord" into a series of Gordian Knots, whether they realized it or not.
- a. King Gordius of Phrygia (fre gee ah), a small kingdom in the western section of Asia Minor, tied a knot that was only supposed to be able to be untied by a future king of Asia (a knot supposedly "cut" in half by Alexander the Great so that it fell apart into untied parts).
- b. A metaphor used to describe an irresolvable problem.
- 3. Witness-John's "witness" was designed to cut through all of the problematic issues of man's alienation from God.
- II. The Interest Of Witness-John's Interrogators.
- A. These interrogators' interest was in getting an "answer to give to those who had sent them from Jerusalem".
- B. Author-John considered the "identities" of the interrogators to be sufficiently significant to mention them.
- 1. There is a general identity: those sent by The Jews from Jerusalem.
- a. In terms of the text, these would be the ones generally responsible for twisting the way of Lord into a hodgepodge of mutually contradictory theological concepts that Jesus, on one occasion, called "grievous burdens to be borne" (Luke 11:46).
- 1) This is the general character of The Jews From Jerusalem: purveyors of lies that twisted the knowledge of God into such a horrendous mess that Jesus said of them, "you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for you neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in ... you compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, you make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves..." (Matthew 23:13 and 15).
- 2) John's self-identity lays these charges at the feet of these religious monstrosities.
- b. In terms of the Gordian Knot, these "Jews" are responsible for tying theology into such a twisted mess that no one could unravel it.
- 2. There are three specific identities.
- a. Priests.
- 1) Author-John had nothing else to say about this "identity" in the rest of his record.
- 2) However, it was common knowledge by the time he wrote his Gospel that "Witness-John" was the son of a "priest of the course of Abijah" and a "daughter of Aaron".
- a) That John was not "on the rolls" of the priests who were ministering as priests as a son of a priest is probably significant, especially in light of Malachi 2:7 and 1:13.
- b) If there was a theological mess in Jerusalem, who do you think were the primary promoters of it?
- b. Levites.
- 1) Author-John also had nothing more to say about this "identity" in the rest of his record.
- 2) However, Levi was named "Levi" by a mother who was convinced that "performance" was the key to gaining "love".
- c. Pharisees.
- 1) Author-John waited until he had recorded Witness-John's self-identity to identify this last group and he refers to them in 19 places in his Gospel.
- 2. This identity reflected the group that had twisted the truth to the point that it was the Pharisees who were the enforcers of the Law and passed the rule that if anyone identified Jesus as the Christ, they would be cast out of Judaism (John 12:42).
- III. Author-John's "Point".
- A. The entire world of Jewish theology was perverse.
- B. The only real interest in Witness-John's identity was to find out if his vast popularity would work for, or against, the interrogators.
- C. There was no real interest in the Truth about Witness-John, and, in the light of 1:6-7, that meant that Judaism was a completely off-track train wreck.
