# 20 By Whose Authority

Joh 1:24 Now those who were sent were from the Pharisees.  25 And they asked him, saying, "Why then do you baptize if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?"  26 John answered them, saying, "I baptize with water, but there stands One among you whom you do not know.  27 "It is He who, coming after me, is preferred before me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose."  28 These things were done in Bethabara beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing.

The Pharisees. Sticklers for the letter of the Law! Guardians of the sheep of Israel, but blinded by their pre-conceived notions of how Israel would be delivered. To their credit, they will not put up with any charlatan who comes along claiming to speak for God and so they press John for answers.

“If you aren’t Christ, Elijah, or the Prophet, where do you get off baptizing?” In short, “Where are your credentials? By whose authority do you do this?”

The Pharisees were hanging their hat on their interpretation of verses like  Eze 36:25 "Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols.

 26 "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

 27 "I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.

 28 "Then you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; you shall be My people, and I will be your God.

Note the pronoun “I” in these verses! This is God speaking and He says “I will do the baptizing!” In their mind, no one but a direct representative from God such as a miraculous re-appearing of Elijah, or the Prophet, or the Messiah Himself would have the credentials to baptize.  

John replies with “Well, I do baptize, and in my baptism, you are cleansed and made fit for the kingdom, but the Power behind baptism is yet to be made known among you. I am merely a herald to the One whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose.” Of course he was talking about Jesus, whose perfect life, subsequent death and resurrection gives the clout to baptism.

John merely administers baptism, Jesus is the clout and purpose of baptism, and in it we are buried with Him and raised to new life! Col 2:12 buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.

The point that John was making is that baptism is of God! It’s not something we do, but rather something God does for us. It’s the same point Jesus was making

In  Lu 20:1-6. (Note the similarity of the questions addressed to John the Baptist and to Jesus, both questions want to know where the authority is coming from? )

Lu 20:1 Now it happened on one of those days, as He taught the people in the temple and preached the gospel, that the chief priests and the scribes, together with the elders, confronted Him

 2 and spoke to Him, saying, "Tell us, by what authority are You doing these things? Or who is he who gave You this authority?"

 3 But He answered and said to them, "I also will ask you one thing, and answer Me:

 4 "The baptism of John--was it from heaven or from men?"

 5 And they reasoned among themselves, saying, "If we say, 'From heaven,' He will say, 'Why then did you not believe him?'

 6 "But if we say, 'From men,' all the people will stone us, for they are persuaded that John was a prophet."

 7 So they answered that they did not know where it was from.

What a pity, for the answer was right in front of them and they missed it! There has always been disagreement about water baptism in the church, Disagreement that would melt away if we would just agree that baptism is something God does for us, not something we do for Him.