1:28
There is no description of John actually baptising anyone in John's gospel, but plenty of side mentions of it. The reason is that John's prime purpose was for his readers to focus on who Jesus is.
The Bethany in this verse is not the Bethany mentioned elsewhere, which is only about 2 miles from Jerusalem. This Bethany was located on the side of the Jordan. There have been various attempts from earliest items to work out where this Bethany was, and some scribes changed the text. However, other geographical references in John have proved to be very accurate. So I think the most likely explanation is that there was a second place called Bethany. Most countries have several towns with the same name.
1:29
Now at last John gets to focus on what, or rather who, he wants to focus on. v32 implies that this happened sometime after John had baptised Jesus.
John calls Jesus the "lamb of God". Now when be think of lambs we think of fluffy little things frolicking in the field, we think they are sweet. This is not the image John is trying to convey. There are two images associated with the lamb. One is of a warrior, which is used in Revelation 5 ( which I also take to be written by John), and the other is of a sacrificial lamb, a dead lamb dripping with blood. Neither of these images is the one we commonly have!
John the Baptist did speak of Jesus in terms of judgement (Matt 3:12), but the end of the verse which speaks of Him taking away the sin of the world shows that the sacrificial aspect must have been paramount.
In. Jesus we find both the warrior and the atoning sacrifice. Any view of Jesus that focuses only on one is unbalanced and misses the truth. Jesus died on the cross tp pay for our sins, but He will return to judge the living and the dead.
This verse also shows why repenting is necessary preparation for receiving Jesus. If we do not think we have any sinfulness that needs dealing with then we will see no need for the Lamb.
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