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The Prophet Who Lost His Head Over Jesus – Part 1

Pathway to Victory / Dr. Robert Jeffress
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December 5, 2024 3:00 am

The Prophet Who Lost His Head Over Jesus – Part 1

Pathway to Victory / Dr. Robert Jeffress

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December 5, 2024 3:00 am

What sort of qualities does God value most? What kind of people does God choose to honor? The answer probably isn’t what you would expect! Dr. Robert Jeffress looks at one of the most overlooked—yet significant—individuals in the whole New Testament.

 

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Hey, podcast listeners. Thanks for streaming today's podcast from Pathway to Victory. Pathway to Victory is a nonprofit ministry featuring the Bible teaching of Dr. Robert Jeffress. And right now, your generous gift will have twice the impact thanks to the Light the Darkness matching challenge.

It's active now through December 31st. To give a special year-end gift, go to ptv.org slash donate or follow the link in our show notes. Now here's today's podcast from Pathway to Victory. Hi, this is Robert Jeffress, and I'm glad to study God's Word with you every day on this Bible teaching program. On today's edition of Pathway to Victory. Welcome to Pathway to Victory with author and pastor, Dr. Robert Jeffress. What sort of qualities does God value most? What kind of people does God choose to honor?

Well, the answer probably isn't what you'd expect. Today on Pathway to Victory, Dr. Robert Jeffress looks at one of the most overlooked yet significant individuals in the whole New Testament. Now here's our Bible teacher to introduce today's message.

Dr. Jeffress. Thanks, David. At Pathway to Victory, we're always looking for creative tools to help you deepen your walk with Jesus, even if it means creating those tools from scratch. Along those lines, I've directed our creative team to put together a resource just for our Pathway to Victory listeners. And today I'm pleased to offer you the outcome of their efforts. It's the brand new Pathway to Victory daily devotional for the coming year. I've written the daily readings, of course, but our team has designed the magnificent cover and layout for each day.

And it's published exclusively by Pathway to Victory in a beautiful navy blue leather bound cover. This devotional is intentionally written so that you and I can walk together through every season in 2025. You'll begin in January through March by discovering God's will for your life. Then in spring and summer, you'll grow stronger in Christ with insights from the book of Colossians. And in the fall and winter, you'll journey home to the Father who loves you as we explore the marvelous parable of the prodigal son. You can't find this leather bound devotional anywhere other than right here. So ask for your copy of the 2025 Pathway to Victory daily devotional when you give a special year-end gift to the Light the Darkness matching challenge.

In this arrangement, every dollar you give to Pathway to Victory between now and December 31st will be automatically matched and therefore doubled in size, having twice the impact. I'll say more about the matching challenge in the daily devotional later in the program. But right now it's time to turn to Luke chapter 3. I've titled today's message, The Prophet Who Lost His Head Over Jesus. Rick Warren's mega best selling book, The Purpose Driven Life, has become one of the best selling nonfiction books in all of publishing history. And when the book came out a few years ago, interestingly, in many secular bookstores, it was placed in the self-help category. And yet Warren's book, The Purpose Driven Life, is really the anti-self-help book because of its focus.

Do you remember how Rick begins the book, the opening paragraph? It's not about you. The purpose of your life is far greater than your own personal fulfillment, your peace of mind, or even your happiness.

It's far greater than your family, your career, or even your wildest dreams and ambitions. If you want to know why you were placed on this planet, you must begin with God. You were born by his purpose and for his purpose.

It's not about us. No one understood that truth or illustrated that truth any better than the central character of our study today. He understood that his purpose in life was not to direct attention to himself, but to direct it toward Jesus Christ.

And for all of his efforts, he ended up losing his life. I invite you to take your Bibles today and turn to Luke chapter 3 as we talk about the prophet who lost his head over Jesus. Luke chapter 3. Now, Luke's account of the life of Christ, remember, does not begin with the birth of Jesus Christ. Instead, Luke begins in Luke chapter 1 with the coming of one who was prophesied in the Old Testament who would precede the Lord Jesus Christ and announce his ministry.

His name would be John. And in the final verse of Luke 1, verse 80, we find these words about John, and the child continued to grow and to become strong in spirit, and he lived in the deserts until the day of his public appearance to Israel. Then, when we come to Luke chapter 2, we find the account of the birth of Jesus Christ. And Luke 2 ends with these words about Jesus, Luke 2-52, and Jesus kept increasing in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and men. Now, when we come to Luke chapter 3, we're at the intersection of the lives of John and Jesus. We are now at the time when Jesus is ready to begin his public three-year ministry that would end with his death and his resurrection. But before Jesus can begin his ministry, John has to announce him. And that is where we are in our study today as we look at the greatest prophet in all of the world. Let's first of all look at the times of John the Baptist, the times in which he ministered. Look at verses 1 and 2. Now, in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip was tetrarch of the region of Ituria and Herconicus, and Licinius was tetrarch of Abilene, not Texas, Israel, and in the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John, the son of Zacharias, in the wilderness.

Do you know how hard I had to work this week to learn how to pronounce each of these names? That's just in the side there. Now, why all of this historical mumbo jumbo? Why don't we just get to the story? Remember, Luke was writing to Theophilus. He was writing in account of the life of Christ. He said, I want you to remember, Theophilus, this is not just some fable that is rooted in fiction. It is rooted in historical fact. So here's the historical setting for the coming of John the Baptist, who would announce the coming of Christ.

Let's look at this for just a moment. This was the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar. Remember, Octavian had been the Roman emperor when Christ was born. He died in about 14 AD, and that is when Tiberius succeeded him.

The scripture says we are now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius, so that's probably 28 or 29 AD when this occurred. Not only that, Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea. When Jesus was born, Herod the Great was king over all of Palestine, all of Israel.

He had been appointed by Octavian, the Roman emperor. When Herod the Great died, his kingdom of Israel was divided into four parts. A tetrarchy is a fourth of the kingdom. One of the tetrarchs, however, who ruled over a fourth of Israel, was one of Herod the Great's sons, whose name was Herod. He was, according to verse one, the tetrarch, the ruler over Galilee. He was known as Herod Antipas, Jesus called him that fox. Then he had a brother, whose name was Philip, who was tetrarch over the region of Iteria and Trichonotus. We'll talk about Philip more in just a moment.

We don't know much about this other tetrarch named Licinius. This also occurred in verse two in the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas. Remember, the Romans had their own rule over Israel, but they allowed the Jews to settle their own matters pretty much. So there was a priesthood in Israel.

At this time, Annas and Caiaphas were serving in the high priesthood. Now, not only did Luke give us this information for the historical background, but he gave us a description of the moral backdrop in which Jesus and John ministered. The one thing all of these men shared in common was they were intently corrupt. This was a time of intense moral corruption. And yet one thing you'll discover in history, it's against the darkest, bleakest background that the light of God's message shines the brightest.

And that's what was going on here. Verse two, against this dark moral corruption, the word of God came to John in the wilderness. For 400 years, God had been silent since the closing verses of Malachi, or as some people say, Malachi.

Remember the closing words of Malachi after that time? God didn't speak for 400 years. Yet when God was ready to speak, where did the word of God come? It didn't come to the emperor in Rome. It bypassed the political leaders in Israel.

It circumvented the priest in the temple in Jerusalem. Instead, the word of God came to a locust-eating, camel-hair-clad, and probably scratching prophet named John. Now, I don't know how to describe John to you.

He was just a weird dude. That's the only way you can talk about John. I know this is irreverent to say, but whenever I think about John, I think about Ernest T. Bass. He was the Ernest T. Bass of Israel.

Only those fans of The Andy Griffith Show will get that. But, you know, Ernest T. Bass, you know, he came out from the hills and screeching and hollering, and he wasn't the most dignified person, but when he talked, people listened. Well, that was true of John the Baptist. He lived in the wilderness, but the word of God came to John.

This word is the Greek word rhema. It means not a general message. There was a specific message that came from God, and it didn't just come to him. The Greek word here, epi, the preposition means it pressed down upon John. John was overwhelmed with this message that came from God, and what was the message? He was to deliver the message, get ready, the Messiah is coming, and that leads to John's purpose. His unique calling was to prepare the world for the coming and ministry of Jesus Christ.

How did he do it? Look at verse three. And John came into all the district around the Jordan preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. The key word here is not baptism, it is repentance. That was John's message. In fact, when you turn over to the parallel passage in Matthew 3-2, Matthew said John's message was repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand. His message was not get baptized, for the kingdom of God is at hand.

Repentance was the message, metanoeo, a change of mind that leads to a change of direction. What I want you to see here is John's message was anticipatory of the coming of Christ. Christ had not yet died and risen again. So John was pointing to the coming of Christ. He was telling the Israelites, get ready, get your hearts ready to accept the Lamb of God who removes the sins of the world. You can't be ready to accept the Savior until you know you need a Savior. And so he was helping them prepare their hearts for the coming of the Messiah.

It was anticipatory. Now the way they showed their acceptance of that message was by water baptism. He was preaching a baptism whose theme was repentance. Now, John's baptism was for a different purpose than Christians are baptized today.

There is a difference between John's baptism that look forward to the coming of Christ and Christian baptism that looks back at what Christ did for us. When we are baptized today, we are identifying with what Christ did for us. Just as Jesus died on the cross, when we trust in him, in a sense, we died with him. Just as Jesus suffered the wrath of God that he didn't deserve, we experienced the wrath of God that we do deserve.

All of it is taken care of when we trust in Jesus. We identify with him. He suffered the wrath of God so we don't have to. He was buried.

We are buried. He was raised again. And as the Scripture says in Romans 6.4, we are raised with him to a whole new way of living. That's Romans 6.4. That's what Christian baptism is. It is a way of identifying with the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. So there's a difference between John's baptism and Christian baptism. A great illustration of that is seen in Acts chapter 19. I want you to hold your place here and turn over to Acts 19. This is so interesting to me. Paul was on his missionary journey. Acts 19.1 says, And it came about that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul, having passed through the upper country, came to Ephesus, and he found some disciples. He found some people that looked like they were religious. And so he said to them.

Now let me stop here. Today, if we want to know whether somebody's a Christian or not, if we've been through any kind of evangelism explosion training, we know there's a question you ought to ask people to determine whether they're saved or not. I don't know of a better question than this one. You ask somebody, if you were to stand before God and he were to ask you, why should I let you into heaven, what would you say? If you want to know whether somebody's a Christian or not, just ask them that question.

You know how most people will answer that question? Oh, I don't know, I'm a pretty good person, or I joined the church, or I was baptized, or Aunt Ethel taught beginners for 50 years in my church. Surely that's enough to get into heaven.

No, there's only one right answer to that question. Because I have trusted in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of my sins. That is the only reason God will allow anyone into heaven.

We've all learned that question. Well, Paul had his own diagnostic question to determine whether somebody was saved or not. He came upon these religious people, he asked them the question, did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? Now, you see, after Acts 2, that was the norm. From Acts 2 on, everybody who trusted in Jesus immediately was baptized with the Holy Spirit of God. 1 Corinthians 12, 13, for with one spirit we were all baptized into one body. When you become a Christian, you are immersed, you are baptized with the Holy Spirit of God. It's not something you pray for as an add-on to your Christian faith later on.

No, God's plan is for you the moment you are saved to be baptized with the Holy Spirit of God. So he asked them the question. You say you're a religious person, did you receive the Holy Spirit? And they answered and said, we don't even know whether there is a Holy Spirit. Paul thought to himself, uh-oh, we've got a problem here. And so he asked them a further follow-up question, verse 3. Into what then were you baptized? And they said, into John's baptism.

Paul thought to himself, oh, that's the problem. They've heard the repentance part, they haven't heard about Jesus. And so what happens? Verse 4, and Paul said, John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in him who was coming after him that is in Jesus. And when they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Paul preached the gospel to them. And when they heard the gospel, they believed and they were baptized.

That is always the pattern. There is a difference between John's baptism and Christian baptism. John's message was actually a fulfillment of what Isaiah prophesied in Isaiah chapter 40. Turn back to Luke chapter 3, verse 4, where Luke quotes that verse. He says, as it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, make ready the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. John's basic message was, roll out the red carpet.

The king of kings is on the scene. Now, let's admit you and I have not been called to live in the wilderness and subsist on a diet of locusts and honey. And yet we have been called, just like John was, to point people to Jesus Christ. What is our message?

How do we share that message? As we look at John's message to the people, I want you to notice the three components of John's message that should be a component and parts of the message that we share with people about the Christ who has already come. First of all, John's message was marked by confrontation. Confrontation, look at verse 7. John therefore began saying to the multitudes who were going out to be baptized by him, you brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come.

That seems a little harsh, doesn't it? I mean, can you imagine my meeting with those who were baptized a few minutes ago earlier in the day, getting them all together and saying, you snakes! Why do you want to get baptized?

What's wrong with you? Man, they would have scampered out of here quickly, wouldn't they? I mean, why was John so hard on them? They were simply being baptized. Well, again, you have to turn to the parallel passage in Matthew 3.7 to know what is going on here.

Matthew says, but when John saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, you brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? You see, these religious leaders were hypocrites, and they were paranoid hypocrites. They saw this great following John was getting, how many of the people were following his message of repentance. They said, we want people to think that we're religious too, so we'll be baptized. John saw through their motivation. He knew what they were up to. They wanted to appear to be religious by going through the external rite of baptism, when in fact, they had not changed at all in their attitudes, in their heart.

So he called them out on that. He says in Luke 3, verse 8, to them and all of Israel, therefore bear fruits in keeping with repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, we have Abraham for our father. If you profess to be religious, but there's no fruit in your life, you're not saved. He says that in verse 9, and also the ax is already laid at the root of the trees. Every tree, therefore, that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

In the Bible, a tree is almost always a symbol of a person's life. The fruit is the works that come out of his life. We're not saved by our fruit, our good works. We are not saved by good works, but we are saved for good works. And one way to tell if somebody's faith is legitimate or not is by what kind of works, fruit his life is producing. He was saying to these Pharisees and Sadducees, you claim to be people of faith, but there's certainly no evidence of it in your life.

One day the judgment of God is gonna cut down that life that bears no fruit. What I want you to see is John was willing to confront people about their sin, and that is always the beginning place for a gospel presentation to point people to Jesus. You have to be willing to confront people about sin, to talk about sin, repentance, and the possibility of hell. Now let's admit that's not popular to do today, is it? We talk about the love of God, we never talk about the judgment of God.

It's just not politically correct to do that. You see, there is no good news unless you understand the bad news. And the bad news about all of us is we are all sinners. The bad news is we are all headed for an eternity in hell.

The good news is Christ offers us an escape from that certain coming judgment of God. This is the perfect time for me to underscore my commitment to you. You can rest assured that I will relay the truth of God's word to you every day on Pathway to Victory without Compromise. As a minister of the gospel, it's my mandate to communicate the whole counsel of God's word no matter the cost, pointing people to Jesus Christ, the light of the world. But this is not my job alone. Just as you need Pathway to Victory, we need you as well.

We're reliant on grateful friends who come alongside us with their generous support. Perhaps you've heard that Pathway to Victory has been the recipient of a staggering matching challenge in the amount of 1.5 million dollars. We're calling it the Light the Darkness Matching Challenge. And for good reason. From the very beginning, God's light has pierced the darkness. In Genesis 1, the Creator commanded, let there be light. And at that precise moment, the darkness was consumed by a bright light.

This miracle set the stage for a grand narrative that culminates in the birth of Jesus Christ, the light of the world. Friends, it's our privilege together to shine His light in the darkest corners of our world. So, would you join me in this noble cause to, as we often say, pierce the darkness with the light of God's word? To thank you for your generous year-end gift, I've written a brand new daily devotional for you.

It'll keep you focused on Jesus every day in 2025. And I'm prepared to send you a copy of this 532-page volume when you give a generous year-end gift toward the record-shattering Light the Darkness Matching Challenge. Thank you for entrusting your gifts to Pathway to Victory. We couldn't do this without you.

David? Thanks, Dr. Jeffress. When you give a generous year-end gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory, we'd like to say thanks by sending you the brand new leather-bound 2025 Pathway to Victory daily devotional. To request your copy, call 866-999-2965. Or even easier, simply go online to ptv.org. And when your gift is $100 or more, you'll also receive this month's teaching series titled, Reigniting Your Passion for Christ. We'll send it to you on both DVD video and MP3 format audio discs.

Remember, your contribution right now will be doubled in impact through our Light the Darkness Matching Challenge. So be sure to get in touch today. Call 866-999-2965 or go to ptv.org. You could also send your donation by mail. Write to P.O. Box 223-609, Dallas, Texas, 75222.

That's P.O. Box 223-609, Dallas, Texas, 75222. I'm David J. Mullins, inviting you to join us again next time when we continue this message on how to live out your own God-given purpose. That's Friday, here on Pathway to Victory. Pathway to Victory with Dr. Robert Jeffress comes from the pulpit of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas. You made it to the end of today's podcast from Pathway to Victory, and we're so glad you're here. Pathway to Victory relies on the generosity of loyal listeners like you to make this podcast possible. And right now, your special year-end gift will be matched and therefore doubled in impact thanks to the Light the Darkness Matching Challenge. Take advantage of this opportunity to double your impact before the deadline on December 31st. To give toward the matching challenge, go to ptv.org slash donate or follow the link in our show notes. We hope you've been blessed by today's podcast from Pathway to Victory.
Whisper: medium.en / 2024-12-05 05:26:34 / 2024-12-05 05:36:48 / 10

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