John 1:26

John answered them saying, I baptize in water: in the midst of you standeth one whom ye know not, even he that cometh after me, the latchet of whose shoes I am unworthy to loose.

Hendriksen's comment on this is:

Why does he baptize? He answers that while he administers the sign (water), he does not claim to be able to bestow the thing signified (the Holy Spirit). That is Messiah's high prerogative, and that glorious One has even now arrived upon the scene of Israel's history, though they have not recognized him.[38]

Such a comment misses the point. John was answering the question of why he was baptizing; but, if Hendriksen's comment is what John meant, he did not answer the question at all. The thought that "Well, my baptism is only a sign" is no reason at all for baptizing, but is rather a good reason for not baptizing! It will be noted that there is no reference to the Holy Spirit in this passage.

I baptize in water ... Note that it was IN, not WITH, water that John baptized, indicating immersion as the action which constituted baptism. John repeated the fact already mentioned by his questioners that he was baptizing people, and then he told them why he was baptizing. Why was it? The Messiah had already arrived but had not yet been publicly revealed. Hence, it was appropriate that the herald should be about the business of cleansing the nation through repentance and baptism, that being God's way of making ready a people prepared to receive the Messiah. The concise answer of why John was baptizing is in the last clause of this verse, "In the midst of you standeth one whom ye know not."