January 09, 2026 | Be Connected
John the Baptist Declares His Mission
Scripture: John 1:19-28(NIV)
19 Now this was John’s testimony when the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask him who he was. 20 He did not fail to confess, but confessed freely, “I am not the Messiah.”
21 They asked him, “Then who are you? Are you Elijah?”
He said, “I am not.”
“Are you the Prophet?”
He answered, “No.”
22 Finally they said, “Who are you? Give us an answer to take back to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?”
23 John replied in the words of Isaiah the prophet, “I am the voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord.’”
24 Now the Pharisees who had been sent 25 questioned him, “Why then do you baptize if you are not the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?”
26 “I baptize with water,” John replied, “but among you stands one you do not know. 27 He is the one who comes after me, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.”
28 This all happened at Bethany on the other side of the Jordan, where John was baptizing.
Devotional
I'm fresh from teaching a Sunday School lesson to our Senior High School students about integrity, with1 John the Baptist in Mark 6 provided one example. Due to John's integrity, he had a huge impact by preparing many for the coming Messiah, and his focus on Jesus led him to become a model for those trying to live the Christian life in the difficult places that we find in Acts and the Epistles.
In verses 19-21, John the author establishes who Jesus is by having John the Baptist introduce Him to us. But, before John can do that, we have to establish the credentials of this strange looking guy causing all the ruckus down by the Jordan River.
Is John credible? Is he worth listening to? Is John claiming to be the Messiah? Or is he claiming to be a prophet with a message from God about the Messiah? Those "who are you" questions are fair ones for the priests to ask.
After several "no" replies, you can almost hear John's sense of exasperation when they demand an answer to the question, "What do you say about yourself?”
John's response is classic, “I am the voice of one calling in the wilderness, 'Make straight the way for the Lord.'" He quotes out of Isaiah effectively saying, "Who I am doesn't matter! Let me tell you what God has given me to do!"
Whenever we read a passage in Sunday school, I always ask, "What stood out to you?" Because my students are teenagers, the sound of crickets is the usual response. But the thing that stands out to me is the tremendous temptation that John refuses here.
Things have been going well. John is drawing large crowds, and influential people are coming to see him. How tempting must it have been to take credit? "Well just maybe I am the Messiah." Or, "people wouldn't be coming in droves if I didn't rank at least as high as a prophet, right?"
We all know people who accept credit for things they didn't do and how that really grates on us. I'm thinking of a certain boss in my past, and I bet you can name one too.
John refuses all that and stays true to his mission. In return, John will get to launch Jesus' ministry by baptizing Him. He will introduce us to Jesus by using seven titles like, "Lamb of God, Son of Man, and Messiah." And John will remain faithful before Herod, becoming a martyr. In so doing, he became a model for living the Christian life long after his time here was done.
