Study of
Jesus - Index
Sunday, August 16, 2010 am
THE LIFE OF JESUS (4)
John Prepares the Way
Matthew 3:1-12
Today, we resume our study of the life of Jesus.
In previous lesson we examined His birth and childhood.
The next few lessons will examine preparation for His ministry.
These will include His temptation, His baptism, choosing His
apostles, and today we want to notice John the Baptist preparing the way
for Him.
No study of the life of Jesus would be complete without a study
of John the Baptist. We read
about John the Baptist in a number of passages and events.
We will notice some of these in our lesson tonight.
But our focus will be on his
preparing the way for Jesus to begin His ministry.
a.
His
name.
Why do we call him John the Baptist? Because that is the name
given him in many passages such as Matt. 3:1.
However, as one author noted, a more accurate title would be John
the Baptizer. His name was
NOT intended to be associated with a particular denomination or even a
title. It was an
indentifying description of what he did AND helped to distinguish him
from other John’s in the NT (such as John the apostle, John Mark, etc.).
b.
His
miraculous birth –
Recorded primarily in Luke 1:11-20, 57-65.
His mother was older and barren.
Zacharias, his father and a priest was made mute from conception until
John was born and presented on his 8th day to the temple.
This within itself attracted
attention to him.
c.
His
manner –
John is described as rough in appearance.
He dwelt and preached in the wilderness – Matt. 3:1.
Luke 1:80 says, “So the child grew and became strong in spirit,
and was in the deserts till the day of his manifestation to Israel.”
John 1:28 tells us he was in Bethabara, beyond the Jordan.
Appearance - Matt. 3:4 says he was clothed in Camel’s hair with a
leather belt around his waist.
He ate locusts and wild honey (wild food).
This was similar to Elijah – 2 Kings 1:8.
Luke 1:15 notes that he was not to drink strong drink or wine and that
he would be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb.
He was a prophet of God – evidenced by what he taught.
Luke 7:28 he was called such by Jesus.
He was of a moral character – Mark 6:20 notes that he was a just
and holy man
John 5:35 – Jesus described
him as “the burning and shining lam, and you were willing for a time to
rejoice in his light.”
d.
His
purpose –
i.
John 1:6-8 tells us he was
sent from God “to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe.”
ii.
He was one
prophesied about in scripture.
Isaiah 40:3 says, “The
voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord;
Make straight in the desert a highway for our God.’”
This prophecy is attributed to John in all 4 gospels – (Matt.
3:3, Mark 1:2, Luke 3:4, John 1:23).
In John’s account, as he is questioned by some of the Jewish
leaders, he specifically says this of himself.
Malachi 3:1, “Behold,
I send My messenger, and he will prepare the way before Me.”
This is attributed to John in Matthew 11:10-11 where Jesus
described John. Also Mark
1:2, Luke 7:26-28.
Malachi 4:5-6, as the Old Testament is concluded we read, “Behold,
I send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and
dreadful day of the Lord.
And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the
hearts of the children to the fathers, lest I come and strike the earth
with a curse.” This
verse was quoted by the angel to Zacharias in Luke 1:17.
iii.
Before he
was born, his purpose was prophesied to Zacharias while in the temple -
Luke
1:13-17 was a prophecy of
his purpose.
After his birth, Zacharias prophesied of his work –
Luke 1:67-80.
In this prophecy John is described as, “a horn of salvation”
(69), “The prophet of the Highest” (76) and “you will go before the face
of the Lord to prepare His ways, to give knowledge of salvation to His
people by the remission of their sins, through the tender mercy of our
God…”(76-77)
Jesus would identify his purpose (Matt. 17:11)
and note that he was the Elijah
they were looking for (the prophet who prepared the way for Jesus) –
though he was not Elijah himself (i.e. reincarnated) cf.
John 1:21.
e.
Jesus honored him – Luke
7:18-35 we find where Jesus speaks to his audience about John.
He notes that he was a prophet and worthy of respect.
However, He took the occasion to expand on the importance of the
Kingdom of heaven and all who enter therein.
f.
His
death -
John would eventually be executed by Herod during the 3 year ministry of
Jesus. We are probably
familiar with the account as recorded in Matthew 14:1-12 and Mark
6:16-29. John was beheaded
at the request of Herodias and her daughter because he condemned their
unscriptural marriage.
Jesus commended John and his work during His ministry – Matt. 11:7-19.
a.
He
had a message that attracted attention:
Matt. 3:5-6 notes that all Judea and the region went out to hear him.
He was effective enough that the Jewish leaders were concerned
and dealt with him, though with caution, because the people had high
regard for him. Jesus would later
expose them when they challenged His (Jesus’) authority – Mark 11:27-33.
b.
The
content of his message:
i.
He
introduced Jesus –
John
1:29-31 actually summarizes his purpose in his message – he
introduced Jesus. Remarkably
he did it without miracles (cf. John 10:41).
ii.
The
Kingdom of heaven is at hand!
–
Matt. 3:2, an important
part of his message that we need to understand.
John was preaching that Jesus was coming to establish the
kingdom. We will find in the
teachings of Jesus that His intent was the same.
This statement of John, along with other passages such as Matthew
16:28, Mark 9:1 – present with power -
contradicts the false doctrine of premillenialism.
iii.
Repentance –
Repentance is one of those subjects we need to be constantly reminded
of. Repent literally means to change of one’s mind.
We often think of it as a change in conduct – which is the RESULT
of true repentance. Paul
said that godly sorrow produces repentance – 2 Cor. 7:10-11. Note that
it also produces a change in one’s life.
Matthew 3:1-3 – John
preached, “Repent for the kingdom
of heaven is at hand.”
Repentance was a key element of his preaching.
John understood that in order
for one to accept Jesus and to be accepted by Him – he needed to purify
his life.
John’s instructions in
Luke 3:7-9.
He called hypocritical leaders, “Brood of vipers!”
He told them to repent!
He even warned them that their corruption as a nation was leading
them to be chopped down at the root.
iv.
Baptism
for the remission of sins –
Mark 1:4, Luke 3:3 - his
baptism was a baptism of preparation. It
was associated with repentance, but it was also “for the remission of
sins”, the same identical expression found in Acts 2:38 (more on this in
our next lesson). For those
present at that time, somehow his baptism produced forgiveness of their
sins. There are other
considerations on this point that we will address next week when we
examine the baptism of Jesus.
v.
He
taught moral living –
Luke 7:10-14 - He gave
specific examples of the need for a holy and pure life.
To all he said that we need to share with others, to tax
collectors – he said not to cheat and to soldiers he said to be content
and to not bully others.
These are all examples of how we need to live “soberly, righteously and
godly in the present age.” (Titus 2:12)
An example of this was his willingness to confront Herod who had married
Herodias unscripturally (cf. Matt. 14:1-5).
His teachings on this moral subject are consistent with Jesus
also (Matt. 19:8-9).
vi.
He
instructed his disciples to follow Jesus
–
John 3:23-30 a passage that speaks of some whom John baptized.
John (the apostle) notes that some of John the Baptist’s
disciples were disputing about Jesus and many turning to Him.
John in vs. 27-29 gave one of my favorite sayings of John. He
said, “A man can receive nothing
unless it has been given to him from heaven. You yourselves bear me
witness, that I said, ‘I am not the Christ,’ but, ‘I have been sent
before Him.’ He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of
the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of
the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is fulfilled.
He must increase, but I
must decrease.”
What a lesson for all of us who are disciples of Christ!
Has this saying proven true in our lives as Christians?
Where are we now compared to when we began our walk.
HOW MUCH have we increased.
Luke
7:18-23 – On one occasion, John sent two of his disciples to ask
Jesus if He were the Coming One or if they were to look for another.
Jesus performed many miracles and instructed them to return to
John and tell what they had seen.
I believe that John’s motive in sending these two disciples was
to convince THEM to prepare to follow Jesus instead of him.
I base that on John 3.
vii.
He
taught prayer & fasting –
Luke 11:1, 5:33 – both of
these passages indicate that a part of John’s message was prayer and
fasting. In this, we note
that he emphasized the importance of worshipping God.
It is an integral part of anyone’s service to Him.
Will we learn this from John?
NOTE that in neither passage did Jesus dismiss these acts as
unnecessary. Let us
learn from them.
And thus we can see the life of John the Baptist.
He prepared the way of Jesus when he came to this earth.
We have the blessing of the
completed word and Jesus having come and died and established His
kingdom. We can be members
of the church Jesus built.
What about you? Have you
obeyed the gospel?
In his message and all
that we read about him, we find that he prepares the way for us as well
to listen to and follow after Jesus.
If we do the things John taught, we will be well on our way to
where we ought to be. If we fail
in serving God as His children, let us repent and make ourselves right
with Him.