John the Baptizer
Lesson 47
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In the previous study,
we found several end time parallels
in the story of Elijah. I think it is
fitting that we examine John the
Baptists life after studying Elijah,
because John and Elijah had several
things in common. For example, when
it came time to speak boldly against
sin, both men were singularly
notorious in their day. Both men
challenged an apostate church-state
in their day. Both men rose out of
obscurity. Both men grew up in the
desert wilderness. Both men were not
formally educated nor were any of
their writings preserved for us to
read. Exceptional Holy Spirit power
filled both men and God granted both
of them the honor of seeing Jesus
with their own eyes!
Some people confuse
John the Baptist with the apostle
John. They are not the same person.
John the Baptist was six months older
than Jesus and about ten or twelve
years older than the apostle John.
The apostle John wrote the
Gospel of John, three epistles that
bear his name and the Book of
Revelation, whereas John the Baptist
wrote none of the books found in the
Bible.
John’s birth
(like that of Isaac) was a miraculous
event because his parents were of an
advanced age. The bible record
indicates that John’s father was
a Levite priest named Zechariah and
his mother’s name was Elizabeth.
Like the prophet Jeremiah, God chose
John, gave him a name, and ordained
him as a prophet before he was
ever born! (Jeremiah 1:5; Luke
1:13-17) Even more, Jesus selected
John to be the forerunner before
either of them was born! To stretch
your mind even further, Jesus not
only chose Mary and Joseph as His
parents, but He also chose Zechariah
and Elizabeth to be John’s
parents. Because Zechariah and
Elizabeth were too old to have
children, John’s miracle birth
gave added credibility to his message
when he began his ministry and became
known as the Baptizer. John was
born in the hill country if Judea,
but he spent most of his life in the
solitude of the desert wilderness.
Evidently, his elderly parents died
when he was a young man. As in the
life of Moses, the wilderness
prepared John for his difficult
mission. John carefully studied the
Scriptures as the Holy Spirit led him
to understand many prophecies in the
Old Testament that pointed to the
appearing of Messiah and the
establishment of His kingdom. John
discovered that Messiah would appear at
the beginning of the seventieth
week, which is mentioned in Daniel 9.
Therefore, in the Spring of A.D. 27,
at the beginning of the seventieth
week of seven years, John began
proclaiming the year had come
for the Messiah to appear and He
would establish His kingdom shortly.
(Matthew 3:2,11; Luke 3; also
Jesus’ comments in Mark 1:15;
Luke 4:18,19) Of course, the Jews
ridiculed John for his beliefs, but
many of them listened to John and
believed his testimony. There is no
record of John the Baptist ever
performing any miracles, but many
people still regarded him as a
prophet of God (Matthew 14:5)
The Ritual of Baptism
There is an
interesting history behind
John’s title, “John the
Baptist.” Of course, the title,
“the Baptist,” was not part
of John’s name at birth nor was
he a member of the Baptist Church, as
some Christians naively believe. John
lived and died as a Jew. He was among
the few in Israel who believed Jesus
was the long awaited Messiah. When
John began his public ministry, he
became notorious for doing something
considered very strange. John
insisted on baptizing Jews in
the Jordan River. Typically, Jews
were not the ones baptized, because
they were the descendants of Abraham
by birth. Conversely, they
baptized the Gentiles as “a
pledge of allegiance” when they
wished to become sons of Abraham.
(Few Gentiles converted to Judaism in
those days, so baptisms by the
priests were scarce. (Matthew 23:15)
The Jews regarded a
Gentile’s baptism as both a
mystical and a practical experience.
In a mystical sense, the Jews
believed a Gentile’s past was
“washed away” when he or
she was immersed. Emerging from the
water, the person became a new son or
daughter of Abraham! Today, baptism,
like the marriage ceremony, is a
public declaration. In baptism, you
demonstrate your allegiance to God
and to the principles of His kingdom
before witnesses. In marriage, you
state your allegiance to your spouse
before witnesses. Even though the
origin of baptism is uncertain,
baptism symbolized to Israel its
experience as a nation. When God
delivered Israel from Egypt (the old
life of slavery), they had to pass
through the waters of the Jordan
River (immersed in the river) and
when the emerged from the water, they
inherited the promised land (the
birth of a new nation). When the Jews
baptized a Gentile, they adopted
him into one of the twelve tribes and
they entered the date of his baptism
into the genealogical records of
Israel.
When John began
preaching that Messiah was about to
appear and set up His kingdom, John
insisted that baptism was a necessary
pledge of allegiance. In effect, John
was preaching that Jews, yes Jews,
needed to convert to a new and
better religion – a religion
centered on the worship of Messiah
instead of the slaughter of animals.
(The old religion of slaughtering
animals was about to disappear.) John
understood that salvation from sin
required an atonement that animals
could not satisfy. When Jesus
appeared on the banks of the Jordan
River in the fall of A.D. 27 for
baptism, the Holy Spirit gave John
utterance and he cried out, “Behold
the Lamb of God that taketh away the
sin of the world!” (John
1:29, KJV)
Why Was Jesus
Baptized?
Many people are
puzzled that Jesus asked John to
baptize Him. Did Jesus need to have
His sins washed away? No. Jesus never
sinned. (Hebrews 4:15) Did Jesus need
to repent of rebellion against His
Father in Heaven? No. Jesus and the
Father are one in Spirit and truth.
(John 10:30) Did Jesus have to be
born again? No. Jesus did not have a
carnal nature. (Colossians 2:9) Then
why did Jesus request to be baptized?
Jesus submitted
Himself to be baptized by John for
two reasons. First, Jesus was born
“under law” (Galatians 4:4)
and He was subject to the Levitical
system He was about to end. (Hebrew
7) By His death on the cross, Jesus
terminated the entire Levitical
system. After His resurrection, Jesus
planned to establish a new world
order on Earth and a new kingdom
based on a new and much better
covenant. At just the right time,
John appeared in the desert
proclaiming the arrival of Messiah
and His coming kingdom. John’s
call to be baptized was an invitation
to be part of the new order; it was a
pledge of allegiance. Jesus
submitted to John’s baptism to
declare His loyalty to the principles
of His coming kingdom. This is a
profound point about the character of
God. The Omniscient Creator of the
Universe is subject to His own laws.
Jesus is neither arbitrary nor
dictatorial. If He were, God would be
inconsistent and chaos would fill the
universe. God loves order and where
there is moral order, there is a rule
of law.
Jesus told the timid
Nicodemus, “…I tell you
the truth, no one can enter the
kingdom of God unless he is born of
water and the Spirit.” (John
3:5) Some people distort the words of
Jesus to mean that unless a person is
baptized he or she cannot be saved.
This is not so. Many circumstances
can prevent a person from being
baptized. For instance, the thief on
the cross was not baptized in his
final moments of life, yet he
sincerely surrendered his life to
Jesus and the Lord Himself assured
him of salvation. Furthermore, the
Bible clearly teaches that works or
rituals do not save us. (Ephesians
2:8,9) We are saved through our faith
in Jesus. When a person lives by
faith, he or she is willing to go, to
be and to do all that God asks,
without compromise. A life of faith
is demonstrated by the loyal life.
However, even if a person is
baptized, it does not necessarily
guarantee salvation. (Matthew
7:20,23) Baptism – like marriage
vows – is a public declaration
of loyalty and God requires it for
our benefit! Public declarations
provide a way to tell others who we
are and what we stand for.
For the person who
believes in Christ, baptism
symbolizes the death and burial of
their carnal nature and the
resurrection of a new person
controlled by a spiritual nature.
(John 3 and Matthew 28) Paul
elaborates on the beauty of this
concept in Roman 6-8. In submitting
to John’s baptism, Jesus
declared His loyalty to the
principles of God’s coming
kingdom. God loves order and where
there is order, there is law.
Second, Jesus was
baptized because He does not ask His
followers to do something that He has
not done first. He is our example.
Remember, Jesus stooped to wash the
feet of His disciples and He
commanded them to do the same to each
other. “If I then, your Lord
and Master, have washed your feet; ye
also ought to wash one another’s
feet. For I have given you an example
that ye should do as I have done to
you. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
the servant is not greater than his
Lord; neither he that is sent greater
that he that sent him.” (John
13:14-16) Jesus chose baptism, not
because He had a carnal past to wash
away, but to give us an example of
stepping out of our inherited
religion and joining in His
inheritance! Jesus
affirmed with His baptism that
everyone – Jew and Gentile alike
– must declare allegiance to the
kingdom of God. Baptism is a public
declaration of one’s loyalty to
god and the principles of His
kingdom! Baptism is to God’s
people what the mark of the beast
will be for those who worship the
Antichrist during the Great
Tribulation.
Just before Jesus
returned to Heaven, He told His
disciples, “Therefore go and
make disciples of all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy
Spirit, and teaching them to obey
everything I have commanded you. And
surely I am with you always, to the
very end of the age.”
(Matthew 28:19,20) In a practical
way, baptism is an event that
separates yesterday from tomorrow.
Baptism declares severance – the
old life is over and a new life has
begun. Baptism should reflect an
inner transformation – from
unbeliever to believer – from a
carnal person to a spiritual person
– from dominion by the sinful
nature to dominion by the spiritual
nature – from being a part of
this world to being a part of the
world to come.
King James Translators
Because of his urgent
message and his strange insistence
that Jews be baptized into the
coming kingdom of God, John the
Baptist became known in the Greek
language as “John, the one who
immerses.” The Greek word baptizo
means to immerse or dunk At the
beginning of the seventeenth century,
the meaning of baptizo
presented a problem for the
translators of the King James version
of the Bible. Most Christians did not
practice baptism by immersion in the
seventeenth century. Instead, the
ceremony of baptism came to mean the
sprinkling of water, most often, the
sprinkling of infants soon after
birth.
(Note: The Church of
Rome concluded around the third
century A.D. that a person could not
be saved unless he or she underwent
the ritual of baptism. Since infant
mortality was very high in those
days, the practice of infant baptism
became necessary to insure that all
children would be saved. Centuries
later, many Protestants carried this
doctrine with them when they left the
Catholic Church.)
The translators
realized they could not translate the
Greek word baptizo as
immersing or dunking without causing
a big theological problem for the
king, so they chose to transliterate baptizo
rather than translate it. By placing
the English word “baptize”
in the Bible without explaining the
meaning as an act of immersing or
dunking, everyone could interpret
baptism as he thought best. The
translators also transliterated
John’s title to “John the
Baptist” instead of “John,
the one who immerses.”
First End Time
Parallel
There is some
important end time parallels
associated with John the Baptist.
First, the role of John the Baptist
play as the First Advent approached
will be the same role the 144,000
will fulfill as the Second Advent
approaches. As we continue to examine
John’s ministry, please keep
this in mind. During the Great
Tribulation, God will use 144,000
“baptizing Johns” to
announce the timely appearing of the
King of kings and Lord of lords and
the establishment of His kingdom! The
144,000 will come from every race,
language, religion and nation.
Assuming there are six billion people
on Earth when the Great Tribulation
begins, the ratio of God’s
servants to the population of Earth
will be approximately one per 50,000
people. Assuming God’s servants
are evenly distributed over the world
during the Great Tribulation, China
would have about 29,000 of the
144,000, India would have about
28,000 of the 144,000 and the United
States would have about 7,000
servants of God. Of course, God will
insure that every nation has enough
“baptizing John’s” to
accomplish the gospel commission
during the Great Tribulation.
Elijah-type People
Notice the words of
Malachi: “See, I will send
you the prophet Elijah before the
great and dreadful day of the Lord
comes. He will turn the hearts of the
fathers to their children, and the
hearts of the children to their
fathers; or else I will come and
strike the land with a curse.”
(Malachi 4:5,6) The prophet Malachi
gave this prophecy about 350 years
before the birth of Jesus. Jewish
leaders during the time of Christ
were not certain of the meaning, but
they did know two things. First, they
knew that God took Elijah to Heaven
in a fiery chariot (2 Kings 2).
Second, they knew that the great and
dreadful day of the Lord was still in
the future. (Joel 2, Obadiah 1,
Isaiah 13 and Ezekiel 30) The Jews in
Christ’s day believed that the
great and dreadful day of the Lord
came in a two-part installment. The great
part would be their exaltation as
a nation and the dreadful part
would be the destruction of their
enemies – which by inference
were God’s enemies. This was the
egocentric mindset of the Jewish
leaders regarding Malachi 4 when John
the Baptist began to preach in the
desert.
Many people were drawn
to t he wilderness to hear
John’s compelling message
because he spoke with unusual clarity
and penetrating power. His preaching
brought hope, but it also caused
fear. When he preached about the
imminent appearing of the Messiah,
John’s careful explanation of
the prophecies brought hope to the
hopeless. When he preached about
God’s love and His willingness
to save sinners, there was joy.
However, when he preached about
God’s wrath toward sin,
John’s sobering words caused
people to reflect seriously on their
lives. This often caused fear to fill
the hearts of the people present.
They listened and asked, “Who
was worthy to receive God’s
salvation?” The Holy
Spirit’s presence and power gave
John’s words depth and scorching
relevance. All people who listened
to John felt the unseen, but obvious
presence of the Holy Spirit – it
could be compared with the experience
of standing in an authoritative
presence of Elijah on Mount Carmel.
With this compelling power and the
evidence of Scripture to back the
words, John warned men and women to
repent or be destroyed. The options
are simple. John insisted upon
heartfelt repentance, full
restitution and baptism for everyone.
They could be no love for sin in the
coming kingdom of God.
One day, after
preaching to a large crowd, John
began to answer questions. Notice his
answers:
“The ax is
already at the root of the trees, and
every tree that does not produce good
fruit will be cut down and thrown
into the fire. ‘What should we
do then? ‘ The crowd asked. John
answered, ‘The man with two
tunics should share with him who has
none, and the one who has food should
do the same.’ Tax collectors
also came to be baptized.
‘Teacher,’ they asked,
‘what should we do?’ Don’t
collect any more than you are
required to,’ he told them. Then
some soldiers asked him, ‘And
what should we do?’ He replied,
‘Don’t extort money and
don’t accuse people falsely
– be content with your
pay.’” (Luke 3:9-14)
John taught that God’s kingdom
would coexist with a world of evil
kingdoms for a time. Eventually,
there would be a purified Earth. I
can think of at least three reasons
why John’s message was
believable. First, it was based on
the Scriptures. Second, John’s
message was timely. He showed from
the prophecies that the time had come
for the appearing of the Messiah.
Third, the Holy Spirit gave
John’s words great power,
clarity and effectiveness. If a
person listened, he or she could not
help but be moved – either into
submission or rejection. One day,
some scribes and Pharisees came,
presented themselves before John and
asked him to baptize them – just
in case John’s predictions might
come true. Of course, they had no
intention of humbling themselves to
do what John was proclaiming and be
right in God’s sight. The Holy
Spirit enabled John to see their
pretense and his response was harsh, “…You
brood of vipers! Who warned you to
flee from the coming wrath [of
God]?” (Matthew 3:7, insertion
mine)
God’s Timing
Let there be no
mistake – the appearing of John
the Baptist was a prophetic
fulfillment. His single purpose
– assigned before birth –
was to prepare people for the coming
of the Lord, Jesus Christ. The
appearing of John the Baptist should
have put the priests on notice that
Messiah was not far behind! For
centuries, the Jews had discussed the
promise of a Deliverer and in
John’s day, the promise was so
old that many people had begun to
question its truthfulness, as if God
had forgotten! At the time of John,
the nation of Israel was in trouble
because Rome had removed Archelaus;
the son of the wicked Herod, and many
Jews had died during the revolt. The
iron hand of Rome rested heavy upon
the neck of Israel. The Romans
occupied Jerusalem and the occupation
provoked their mutual hatred of each
other. This tiny tribal Jewish
nation, within the vast Roman Empire,
desperately needed a Savior.
Then came John.
Imagine the interest he aroused when
he began to preach about the imminent
appearing of the Savior. The Bible
says, “The people were
waiting expectantly and were all
wondering in their hearts if John
might possibly be the Christ.”
(Luke 3:15) At this moment in
history, people were filled with
expectancy. This expectancy soared as
John explained Daniel 9 to his
audiences. Daniel 9 predicted that
the Messiah would appear in the 484th
year after the decree to restore and
rebuild Jerusalem. (Daniel 9:25) John
explained how 69 weeks had expired
since the decree of Artaxerxes to
rebuild Jerusalem (457 B.C.).
Therefore the actual year for the
appearing of Messiah had come and God
would establish His kingdom soon
afterwards. Many Jews began seriously
to consider the possibility of John
being the Messiah.
The number of people
visiting the wilderness to see John
continued to escalate. Concerned, the
Sanhedrin sent a deputation of
priests to investigate this
mysterious man and his message. Note
their words: Now this was
John’s testimony when the Jews
of Jerusalem sent priests and Levites
to ask who he was. He did not fail to
confess, but confessed freely,
‘I am not the Christ.’ They
asked him, ‘Then who are you?
Are you Elijah? He said, ‘I am
not.’ Are you the Prophet [predicted
by Moses]?’ He answered,
‘No.’ Finally they said,
‘Who are you? Give us an answer
to take back to those that sent us.
What do you say about yourself?’
John replied in the words if Isaiah
the prophet, ‘I am the voice of
one calling in the desert, Make
straight the way for the
Lord.’” (John 1:19-23,
insertion mine) Did you notice the
order of their questions? What they
believed about Malachi’s
prophecy prompted their questions.
