John 1:19-51

¹⁹Now this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” ²⁰He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ.” ²¹And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” And he answered, “No.”

²²Then they said to him, “Who are you, that we may give an answer to those who sent us? What do you say about yourself?”

²³He said: “I am ‘The voice of one crying in the wilderness: “Make straight the way of the Lord,”’^£ as the prophet Isaiah said.” 

Verses 19-23

John was quite a sensation in Jesus’ day. The gospel of Mark says that all of Judea and Jerusalem went out to hear him. Multitudes were coming out to hear him preach and to be baptized. The Pharisees became so concerned about losing their “clout” with the people that they sent messengers out to see who this guy was. It was prophesied in Malachi 4:5 that Elijah would come before the great day of the Lord. Elijah was a powerful Old Testament prophet mentioned in 1st Kings. With that prophecy in mind, they ask are you Elijah. When he said “No”, they asked if he was “the prophet”. This referred to Moses saying in Deuteronomy 18:15 that God would raise up a prophet like him. John said “No” He stated he was just “a voice crying in the wilderness”. But they would recognize that this was in answer to prophecy also. The religious leaders did not like John’s popularity; it threatened their hold on the people and if they didn’t like John, they were going to hate Jesus. 

²⁴Now those who were sent were from the Pharisees. ²⁵And they asked him, saying, “Why then do you baptize if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?” ²⁶John answered them, saying, “I baptize with water, but there stands One among you whom you do not know. ²⁷It is He who, coming after me, is preferred before me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose.”  ²⁸These things were done in ^£Bethabara beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing.

Verses 24-28

Water baptism was nothing new with John. The Jews already used it as a means of cleansing or a sign of forgiveness. John was fiery in his message, but humble in his bowing to Jesus’ authority. He said he was not worthy to untie Jesus’ shoes. 

²⁹The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! ³⁰This is He of whom I said, ‘After me comes a Man who is preferred before me, for He was before me.’ ³¹I did not know Him; but that He should be revealed to Israel, therefore I came baptizing with water.”

³²And John bore witness, saying, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and He remained upon Him. ³³I did not know Him, but He who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘Upon whom you see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ ³⁴And I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God.” 

Verses 29-34

Of course John knew Jesus before he met Him that day. After all they were cousins, but John recognized Jesus as the Messiah when he saw the Dove (God’s Spirit) descend upon Him. Based on that sign from heaven, John testified that Jesus was the Son of God. 

³⁵Again, the next day, John stood with two of his disciples. ³⁶And looking at Jesus as He walked, he said, “Behold the Lamb of God!”

³⁷The two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus. ³⁸Then Jesus turned, and seeing them following, said to them, “What do you seek?” They said to Him, “Rabbi” (which is to say, when translated, Teacher), “where are You staying?” ³⁹He said to them, “Come and see.” They came and saw where He was staying, and remained with Him that day (now it was about the tenth hour).

⁴⁰One of the two who heard John speak, and followed Him, was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. ⁴¹He first found his own brother Simon, and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which is translated, the Christ). ⁴²And he brought him to Jesus.  Now when Jesus looked at him, He said, “You are Simon the son of ^£Jonah. You shall be called Cephas” (which is translated, A Stone).

⁴³The following day Jesus wanted to go to Galilee, and He found Philip and said to him, “Follow Me.” ⁴⁴Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. ⁴⁵Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found Him of whom Moses in the law, and also the prophets, wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”  ⁴⁶And Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”  Philip said to him, “Come and see.” ⁴⁷Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward Him, and said of him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no deceit!” ⁴⁸Nathanael said to Him, “How do You know me?” Jesus answered and said to him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.” ⁴⁹Nathanael answered and said to Him, “Rabbi, You are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” ⁵⁰Jesus answered and said to him, “Because I said to you, ‘I saw you under the fig tree,’ do you believe? You will see greater things than these.” ⁵¹And He said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, hereafter^£ you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”  

Verses 35-51

Here is a good time to try to answer your question.

Was John the Apostle around for these events, or did he just hear about them from the other disciples or John the Baptist himself?

We learn from these verses Andrew was a disciple of John the Baptist. He introduces Simon Peter, his brother to Jesus. Both Andrew and Peter are fishermen. In Matthew 4, Jesus called Andrew, Peter, James, and John to be disciples. John, the fisherman becomes John the Apostle. How did John know about the events around the baptism of Jesus?

1. He could have been a disciple of John the Baptist as Andrew was and seen it firsthand. He may have been the other disciple mentioned with Andrew. John did refer to himself in the third person in the Gospel, never bringing attention to himself by name.

2. Probably, he heard about the events from Andrew, since they were both fishermen and obviously (according to Matthew 4), fished next to Andrew and Peter on the Sea of Galilee.

3. Since he was an apostle, I am sure he got much of his information about the events first hand from Jesus.

So, if we give any credibility at all to the Gospel account, that John was actually an eye witness to the events he writes about or that he received information from other eye witnesses, this book has a powerful and persuasive argument about the claims of Jesus Christ as an actual historical figure. Is Jesus the Son of God? Is He the Savior of the world? According to John’s account, the answer is “Yes!!!”   Andrew, Simon Peter, and Philip become disciples of Jesus.