Who was Jesus? Start w/ John the Baptizer (John's Gospel for Skeptics 5 - 1.5-3.36)

When Jesus was asked if his authority came from God, he replied with a simple: where did John the Baptizer's authority come from. The two were inextricable. This is why all four Evangelists present the Baptizer as the first and most important certifier of Jesus as Messiah. Both Christian and non-Christian alike seem to pass over his importance. This video argues why John remains today the most important witness to the claim that Jesus was the Messiah.
I have interviewed many non-believers for the podcast The Divide, where my good friend Drew (a former Christian) and I (a former Atheist) interview people about the deeper issues that divide our culture. No surprise that many of the non-believing are severe critics of the Bible. Fair enough. It should be judged critically, especially its extraordinary claims. Still, a number of non-believing critics haven't, so to speak, watched the movie very 'critically.' This series aims to explain the Gospels directly to non-believing skeptics. To do so, the series will work on two levels:
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1) The meaning of Gospel stories on their own terms
2) The grounds for why Christians take these stories seriously still today.
I am a classicist by training, who teaches classical languages and Great Books in university.