Did Everyone At Jesus’ Baptism Hear God’s Voice?
Q: When Jesus was baptized, John the Baptist heard God’s voice—did the crowd hear it as well? If so, why was there still confusion about Jesus being the Messiah?
A: Yes, I think John heard God’s voice, and I think everybody who was there heard it. But I also think that’s the kind of thing you might hear and afterward find it very easy to think, “What did I hear? How do I know was that real? Was that something that really happened?” I think it would be very easy to fall into that trap.
It is an incredibly rare and remarkable thing to hear the audible voice of God from heaven. I can think of only a few times in the Scriptures when it happened that God spoke in an audible voice from heaven. That fact makes me skeptical of people who act as though God speaks in an audible voice to them all the time. Pardon my skepticism, but it’s a rare thing in the Scriptures. I think it would be strange if somebody would regard it as a common thing today. But again, because it’s such a rare thing, it’s the kind of thing you would likely wonder about whether you ever heard it when it first happened.
Unbelief isn’t necessarily logical. People who are atheists or unbelievers like to pretend that they have the corner on logic. They give the impression that they are the deep thinker and you are the superficial thinker. Friends, I don’t think that’s the case at all. I think that those who do think very deeply about God understand God’s ways and God’s will in His Word in a very powerful way.