John the Baptist

The last prophecy of the Old Testament contains this detail that before the day of the Lord, Elijah will come. And then after that prophecy, the voice of prophecy ceases in Israel, and there's not a peep out of God for 400 years. Until suddenly from out of the wilderness comes a man dressed in the traditional robes of a prophet, and he comes proclaiming that the kingdom of God is at hand. That appearance of John the Baptist is how the New Testament begins.

This week on Renewing Your Mind, Dr. R.C. Sproul introduces us to the important themes and events we find in the Gospels, and today our study focuses on the one who paved the way for the Messiah. Sometimes I like to torment my seminary students by asking them a question that tends to drive them to distraction. I ask the question, in your opinion, who would you say is the greatest prophet in the Old Testament?

And that will usually start a debate. Some will say Elijah, some will say Jeremiah, some will say Isaiah, and people will mention their favorite. And I say, well, I think that the most important prophet in the Old Testament is John the Baptist.

Then they look at me with consternation and say, well, how can that be? John the Baptist is in the New Testament. And I'll say, yes, John the Baptist is mentioned and recorded in the pages of the book called the New Testament. But in terms of redemptive history, he belongs to the period of the Old Testament.

That is, to that period in redemptive history when all of the procedures of the Old Covenant are still in place. Jesus says that the law and the prophets ruled until John. And the little word there, until, means up to and including John. And Jesus also said of John the Baptist, of all of those who are born of woman, there is none greater than John the Baptist. Yet, he said, he who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than John.

That's an extremely enigmatic statement. Is Jesus saying, for example, that I'm greater than John the Baptist? I certainly qualify for being least in the kingdom. So, if I'm least in the kingdom, that must make me greater than John the Baptist. What Jesus is obviously saying here is that John still belongs to that period of preparation for the breakthrough of the kingdom of God.

But anybody who lives on this side of the coming kingdom of Christ enjoys a greater state of blessedness and felicity than any of the figures in the Old Testament. Now I have to say that of all of the figures that we meet in the pages of the New Testament, perhaps the most underrated and underestimated figure is John the Baptist. And I really don't understand why it is that Christians today seem to give such little attention to this man, particularly in light of the degree of attention that is afforded him in the pages of the New Testament. It's interesting to me that in the four gospels, only two of the four gospels tell us about the birth of Jesus. All four gospels begin with some communication about John the Baptist. Traditionally, scholars have argued that the first gospel written was the gospel of Mark. And Mark, oddly enough, does not give us any information about the birth of Jesus, but Mark begins his gospel with these words, the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, as it is written in the prophets. That's how Mark begins his gospel. He says the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and then the next thing he says is, as it is written in the prophets, behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you.

The voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Then in the very next line we read, John came baptizing in the wilderness and preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. And then what follows is a brief description and account of John's ministry. So it's significant to me that Mark starts his gospel by introducing John. And in Luke's gospel we hear of the annunciation of the angel Gabriel to Zacharias, the father of John. Now why is it that the New Testament gives so much ink and so much importance to John the Baptist? It's also interesting, to me at least, that if you look at the secular historians of the first century and hear what they say about what is going on within the context of Palestine, we get more information outside of the Scriptures about John than we do about Jesus. There are only two or three obscure references to Jesus from the secular historians of the day.

But John achieved national fame and celebrity, and there's a reason for that. It was because his appearance was of striking importance to his contemporaries, because the voice of prophecy had been silent in Israel for four hundred years. And if we look to the last page of the Old Testament in the writing of the prophet Malachi, the last page, the last chapter, the last prophecy of the Old Testament records these words, Malachi chapter 4 verse 5, Behold, I will 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 their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse. You recall in the first segment of Dust of Glory, we looked at the prophet's concern about the motif of the day of the Lord, that future event which would be an event both of the outpouring of God's judgment and the bringing of redemption to the faithful. And prophet after prophet in the Old Testament spoke about this coming day of the Lord, and the last prophecy of the Old Testament is with regard to the day of the Lord. But it contains this detail that before the day of the Lord, Elijah will come. And then after that prophecy, the voice of prophecy ceases in Israel. And there's not a peep out of God for 400 years for the people until suddenly from out of the wilderness close by Jerusalem comes a man dressed in the traditional garb of the ascetic desert dwelling prophet whose behavior and dress are reminiscent of Old Testament Elijah, and he comes proclaiming the radical nearness of the kingdom of God.

His message is simple. Present for the kingdom of God is at hand. And the Scriptures make reference to the Old Testament prophecies of the coming Messiah whose appearance will be heralded by Elijah and by the one who comes out and says to make straight the pathways for the coming of the Lord. And so all of a sudden John the Baptist appears on the scene with this radical message that the kingdom of heaven or the kingdom of God is at hand. Now notice the difference between the prediction of the coming of the kingdom of God that is found in the rest of the Old Testament prophets as distinguished from the prophecy of John the Baptist. In simple terms, the Old Testament prophets were saying the kingdom of God is coming someday.

John says it's at hand, and he uses two crucial images to stress the radical nearness of the breakthrough of the kingdom of God. He says, on the one hand, the ax is laid at the root of the tree. Now again, the imagery that had been used by the Old Testament prophets to describe the day of the Lord as it would befall unfaithful Israel was a time of pruning, a time of cutting down of the dead branches and of throwing them into the fire. Now here comes the prophet saying that the ax is laid at the root of the tree.

It's not that the woodsman is just chipping away at the outer shell of the tree, but he has taken the ax and penetrated to the very core of the tree, and the idea here is that one more blow from the ax and the tree will come crashing down. The other image, his fan is in his hand. Now we sometimes misunderstand that. You know, it's to think of somebody at the opera leaning back with their fan and taking it easy and fanning themselves to get cool. No, the fan that is in view here is the winnowing fork, which is the instrument used by the Jewish farmers for separating the wheat from the chaff. And the way it was done on the winnowing floor was the wheat and the chaff would all be together in one pile, but the chaff was so light, so much lighter than the substance of the grain that was mixed together with it, that all it took for the farmer to make the separation between that which was good and that which was worthless. He didn't have to sit down and go through the pile and try to pick out the wheat and pick out the chaff. All he had to do was stick this big rake-like fork into the pile and throw the whole pile up in the air, and the slightest zephyr, the slightest breeze of air would carry the chaff away, like the ungodly man of which the psalmist speaks, and the wind drives away.

And as the chaff would float away, then the grain would fall directly down and the farmer could then gather it and use it. Well, the image that John uses is his fan is in his hand. That is the decisive moment of separation of the coming crisis is at hand. So we get this alarm that is sounded by this man who comes out of the desert calling on the people to repent. Now John does something else that is totally radical for his time. He comes out and calls the Jewish people to be baptized. In other words, his ministry is so intimately connected with his work of baptism that he is known by the name John the Baptizer or John the Baptist. Now what makes this so significant was that in the Old Testament, Jewish people in order to be in the good standing and good graces of God were required to believe the truths of the covenant, and the men were required to be circumcised, that is to partake of the sign of the covenant. Now if a Gentile convert to Judaism wanted to be received in the Jewish community, the Gentile convert had to undergo three things.

First, he had to make a profession of faith in the truths and the doctrines of Judaism. Second of all, he had to undergo the rite of circumcision. And thirdly, he had to undergo what was called the rite of proselyte baptism because being a Gentile, he was considered an alien and a foreigner to the covenant and unclean. So he had, as it were, to take a bath to be cleansed before he could be accepted into the Jewish community. Now all of a sudden, for the first time in Jewish history, here comes a Jewish prophet who comes to the Jewish people right outside of Jerusalem and tells the Jewish people, take a bath.

Now this was incendiary, inflammatory. The authorities from the religious institutions in Jerusalem came out to the Jordan and saw what John the Baptist was up to, and they were furious. And they said, we have Abraham for our father.

We're Jews. What do you mean by requiring this rite of baptism? While the people of the earth, the peasants, willingly submitted to this rite acknowledged that they were not clean, and John turned to the authorities and called them snakes and worse. And basically what he was saying is God has enacted a new requirement for His people because your king is at the door, your Messiah is about to come, and you're not ready for Him. You are unclean, and before He comes, you must take a bath.

Well, you can imagine the uproar and the controversy that this provoked. And so we read in John's Gospel that a delegation was sent out by the authorities to interrogate John about what he was up to, and we read that in the first chapter of John's Gospel. We read in verse 19, chapter 1, now this is the testimony of John. When the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask Him, who are You? He confessed and did not deny, but confessed, I am not the Christ.

And they asked Him, what then? Are You Elijah? And He said, I am not. Are You the prophet? And He answered, no. And then they said, who are You that we may give an answer to those who sent us?

What do You say about Yourself? And He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord. Now, what's significant and also puzzling about this is that the authorities come to John the Baptist and ask Him straight out, are You Elijah?

And He said, I am not. Yet we read these comments that are recorded for us in the Gospel according to Matthew in the 17th chapter, verse 10, and the disciples asked Him saying, why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first? Jesus answered and said to them, indeed Elijah is coming first and will restore all things. But I say to you that Elijah has come already and they did not know Him, but did to Him whatever they wished. And likewise, the Son of Man is also about to suffer at their hands. Jesus said, Elijah's already come. They didn't know Him.

And I am about to suffer the same fate that He suffered. Now, what Jesus hints at here, He elsewhere makes abundantly clear when He said, if you can bear it, John the Baptist was Elijah who was to come. Now, here you have John saying, I'm not Elijah. Jesus saying, He is Elijah.

But He's saying it in a somewhat cryptic, guarded way. That is to say, Jesus is saying, in a certain sense John is Elijah. That is, John fulfills the Old Testament prophecy regarding Elijah. The way this is reconciled, I think, is found in the beginning of the Gospel according to St. Luke at the time that the angel announces the impending birth of John the Baptist to Zacharias. He says in verse 13, do not be afraid Zacharias, for your prayer is heard and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son and you shall call his name John. And you will have joy and gladness and many will rejoice at his birth.

For he will be great in the sight of the Lord and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink. He will also be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother's womb. Let me just comment on that passage because later on we read that while Mary was pregnant, she went to visit Elizabeth, her cousin, who had been pregnant a few months longer than Mary was, but she had not yet delivered her baby.

And when Mary met Elizabeth, we are told that the babe in the womb of Elizabeth leapt for joy. That is to say before John the Baptist was even born, he bore witness to the coming of Christ. We're told here, he will be filled from the Holy Spirit from his mother's womb and he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. And he will also go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah. Then a direct quote from Malachi, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.

Here's how Luke resolves the problem. This is not simply the resurrection of Elijah, but it's Elijah redivivus. It is the revival of the prophetic ministry of Elijah as John the Baptist now comes in the power of Elijah and in the spirit of Elijah, fulfilling Malachi's prophecy that before the coming day of the Lord, Elijah would return. Now obviously, his most important mission was to bear witness to Jesus. And when he saw Jesus approaching the Jordan, he sang the Agnus Dei, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. And he asks Jesus to baptize him. Jesus said, no, I came for you to baptize me. And John is reluctant, he's reticent to submit to that order of the Messiah.

He said, I don't understand this. You're greater than I am. You should be baptizing me. And Jesus answers John and says, suffer it now, John, for it is necessary to fulfill all righteousness. In so many words, Jesus said, do it. Trust me. And so John baptizes Jesus.

Why? Well, because it was necessary for Jesus to obey every detail of every law that was imposed upon the people of God. And God had now imposed a new requirement.

And though Jesus had no sin of his own to fulfill all righteousness, he submits to the baptism of John. This is just a thumbnail sketch of John the Baptist. As you turn the pages of your New Testament, see how frequently allusions and references are made to this man, his ministry, and his significance in the history of redemption. That's Dr. R.C.

Sproul. And this week here on Renewing Your Mind, we are pleased to feature R.C. 's series, Dust to Glory. While we're concentrating on the New Testament this week, the full series is a broad overview connecting the various parts of Scripture. It helps us understand the overall narrative of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation in fifty-seven lessons.

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