What Does The Bible Say?
30 Minute Discussions Of Bible Subjects
What Does The Bible Say?
What Does the Bible Say About John the Baptizer?
Arnie and Glenn begin this episode on John the Baptizer or Immerser, by first noting that his ministry began just before Jesus' work did and lasted only a year or two. Even though he worked such a short time, John was one of the most important and best-known men influencing 1st Century Palestine. Unfortunately, much of his importance is overlooked by many disciples today. As far as we can tell, John began his work about AD 27. His mission was to prepare the way for the Messiah or Christ. We look at the prophesy that tells us that in the Old Testament. John the apostle tells us in his gospel that John the Baptizer was to prepare men to believe in the Light. We discuss what that means. He had a specific message that he was to preach. We discuss what that message included. John included the common man, religious leaders as well as the politically powerful. A number of those situations are looked at. We talk about the "fruits of repentance" that John mentions. Of course, he preached about the coming of the Messiah and we look at some of what he had to say. John guided his disciples' spiritual growth including teaching them how to pray and fast. We note how this applied to Jesus' disciples. This episode concludes with us noting how faithfully John the Immerser performed his mission. Take about 30-minutes to listen in on our discussion. Have your Bible handy so you can verify what we are saying. For your convenience, there is a transcript of this Buzzsprout episode provided.
This is a presentation of the Woodland church of Christ meeting at 3370 Broad Street in Sumter, South Carolina. We meet for worship on Sunday at ten thirty am and five thirty pm. We meet for bible study at nine thirty am on Sunday and seven pm on Wednesday. If you have questions or comments on this lesson, you may email them to Fred Gosnell at fgosnell@ftc-i.net or to Arnie Granke at agranke440718@twc.com.Good afternoon.
Arnie:This is Arnie Granke, and Glen Landrum is with me this afternoon, and this is, what does the Bible say? What does the Bible say Is brought to you by the church of Christ at Woodland in Sumter, South Carolina. And in the event that you happen to visit Sumter or live in sum, Sumter, we would be delighted to have you come and worship with us and and study the Bible with us and and talk about things that are of a spiritual nature. Glenn, what, what are we going to talk about today?
Glenn:Well, we're going to be talking about John the Baptizer, or most people know would know him as being John the Baptist. But a good introduction to to John would be in Luke 7, 24, to 28 and it reads, What manner of man was this, John, who was called the Baptizer, or the Immerser. And we evoke such commendation from God, the Son of God, although his ministry was brief, starting just before Jesus work and lasting only a year or two, John the Baptist, or baptizer, was one of the most important and the best known men influencing first century Palestine. Unfortunately, much of his importance is overlooked by many disciples today. Now that passage I mentioned Luke 7, 24, to 28 a good introduction to John in the Scriptures. And when the messengers of John were departed, he began to speak unto the people concerning John, and went you out into the wilderness to for to see? A reed shaken in the wind? But what went you out to see? A man clothed in soft raiment? Behold, they which are gorgeously apparelled and live delicately, are in King's courts. But what went you out to see? A prophet? Yea, I say unto you, and much more than a prophet. This is he of whom, it is written, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee. For I say unto you, among those who are born of women, there is not a greater Prophet than John the Baptist, but he that is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he. Of course, that was Jesus speaking about about John.
Arnie:So that's that's a passage that that answers the question, What manner of of man was, was John? And and it's interesting here to see that, that even though his work only lasted for a year or or two, what an important individual he was, and and one of the best known, known men of of his time there in in first century, Palestine.A`nd so many people, tragically, it seems, overlook much of of what John has has done. So his ministry actually began about AD 27. Understand, we didn't have calendars going back to that to that time, so there's kind of an estimate on on a lot of the dates and the years and so forth that are mentioned in in biblical things. But Luke Chapter Three tells us that the word of God came to John, Luke three, beginning in verse one, Now in the 15th year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate, being governor of Judea and Herod being tetrarch of Galilea. Tetrarch is one of four officials there; and his brother Philip Tetrarch of Ituraea and of the region of Trachonitis, a teacher of Abilene. Annas anmd Caiaphas, being the high priests. The Word of God, came unto John, the son of Zacharias in the wilderness, and he came into all the country about Jordan preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission of sin. And of course, you that's one of the things that I think everybody knows about John, that he was known as a baptizer because he did preach and and and baptized. And many, many people responded to that.
Glenn:Of course, John had a mission. He was given this mission we read a few moments ago about about the mission that he was given. But he was given a mission to prepare the way for the Messiah that would be Christ. In Luke three, four through six. We just read the first three verses for the next three verses after that, As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah, the prophet saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare you the way of the Lord. Make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God. So this was basically the mission of John. Of course, in isaiah 40, 3 through five would be the prophecy concerning that. And it read, The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness. Prepare you the way of the Lord. Make straight in the desert, a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plaim and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it. The the words of that prophecy were very similar to the fulfillment of it that we read just a few moments ago from Luke three, four through six, Arnie.
Arnie:Well, the the verses that that follow that just starting at at Verse six, There was a man sent from God whose name was John, the same, came for a witness to bear witness of the light that all men through him might believe. He was not that light, but he was sent to bear witness of that light. Interestingly, in the King James version, which, which we were just reading there, the light is capitalized there. It's referring to an individual. And of course, the one who's being called the The light is, is Christ, as you pointed out. If we're, if we're using one of the Hebrew terms for, for him, he would be the Messiah. If we're looking at passages that that are written in Greek, the Messiah would be the equivalent of of the Greek word, the Christ or Christos, there. So, so here he is. he's, he's preaching and doing the work that he had been chosen for, to bring the light into visibility. I guess you'd say of of all the people, or at least as many people as as possible.
Glenn:Yes, John was he came to prepare the way for Christ. And the scripture that you read, of course, was in the first chapter of John. Now, John also preached repentance and imminence of God's kingdom. Read in Matthew three, one and two. In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying, Repent you, for the kingdom of God is at hand. So John was preaching about God, about the Kingdom of God, and letting us know, or letting them know at that time, that the kingdom was about to come.
Arnie:So one of the things that that John preached about, it wasn't all just sugar and and charm and and all of that. There were some warnings that that were involved in in his preaching, and some of those warnings were pretty, pretty serious, because he's preaching about God's judgment, and Luke tells us in in Luke three and and verse seven, beginning, he said, Then he said to the multitude that came forth to be baptized of him, Oh generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come, Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance. Begin not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham for our father. For I say unto you, God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham So John is, is serious, warning people about the judgment to come and the way to escape from that is, was for them to be baptized for the remission of their of their sins.
Glenn:Yes, John did. He. he convicted people of what they were doing that was wrong. Uh, he even convicted the one of the Tetraachs of of sins that he was committing. So he was, didn't hold back in what he was teaching. He was teaching the Word of God and teaching both the coming of the kingdom and that there were things that that the people there needed to be doing, and how they needed to be doing, and that they needed to be worshiping God. So Luke three, verse nine, it says, And now also the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that shall bringeth not good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. We learn from this, particularly that for those people that day, and it also applies to us, that there are things that we we have to do, and there's morals that we have to keep in order to produce good fruit. For without doing those things, we're not producing good fruit. And this is a good example that the tree that does not produce good fruit is hewn down.
Arnie:John. John is recorded in Matthew chapter three, as as giving again, another one of those, another one of those warnings, because of the seriousness of people needing to to repent. Beginning in verse 11, he said, I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I'm not worthy to bear. He shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire, whose fan is in his hand. And he will truly purge his floor and garner his wheat. Gather His wheat into the Garner, but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. And of course, he's not talking about the kind of wheat that we would think of here. He's referring, in this case, to his hearers, as being the the wheat and and the wheat being burned up in unless it's proves itself to be worthy by obeying God's will.
Glenn:You know, just recently, we had lessons on a figurative and literal language, and this is a good example of some of that figurative language when he's using wheat and chaff to represent the good and the bad, and that would be representing people who are doing good and people who are doing bad. And of course, those that the real point we need to take from it is the chaff or the bad part of that wheat is going to be burned up. And we can, we can take that as an example for us. Now, the two verses prior to that, we see something that I mentioned a few moments ago, that John didn't show any any prejudice or preference at all. He was equally at at ease telling just common people what what was right and wrong, as well as he was telling royalty what was right and wrong. So in seven through nine, Matthew three, seven through nine, he says. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said to them, Oh generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come, Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance and think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father, For I say unto you that God is able to raise up these stones of. To raise these stones up children unto Abraham. That may be a little bit hard for us to understand, but simply what what John is saying in this is that that God doesn't necessarily need anything from us, he's able to generate believers from stones. People often want to brag about who they are and what what their lineage is, and that's what they were doing. They're saying Abraham is our father. Obviously we're okay, but, no, but Christ said, That's not, not, not exactly right. Or John actually said, you know, that's not exactly right. He said, No, God can, can take stones and raise up children of Abraham if he wants to.
Arnie:You know, it's, it's an interesting thing that, if you read the New Testament and see see some of the individuals that Jesus had to deal with, you find that even the religious hierarchy of the Jews pretended to be perfect. They were flawless. They had it made. They were just going to skate right into heaven without any problem at all. It was those common people that were the sinners and and that they would be penalized there unless they did what the priests and and the hierarchy required of them. And the interesting thing is that not much has changed in the last 2000 years. You have the same attitude very often among people
Glenn:No, no. who profess to be religious, religious people. That's a dangerous approach and and I, I feel that one would do well to repent of that and be more realistic about their true relationship with God, rather than to pretend just because they're some sort of pastor or or priest or rabbi or whatever they happen to be, that everything's fine between them and and, God. Yeah, you know, I mentioned that John was comfortable telling even the royalty. In Luke 3, 19 he says, But Herod the Tetrarch being reproved by him for Herodias, his brother Philip's wife, and for all the evils which Herod had done. The situation was that Herod had taken his brother's wife and was having relations with her. And so John, he reproved Herod for doing that, and told him, and he said he's doing wrong. Herod didn't like it too well, did he?
Arnie:Well and and, of course, later on, if, if we jump ahead to the final days of John's life, that's what cost him his his life, that that woman was angry about that, and she demanded that that his head be lopped off there. So,
Glenn:Herod had already put him in prison.
Arnie:Say again.
Glenn:Herod had already put him in prison. So he was in prison when, when Herod's daughter asked for John's head.
Arnie:John's. Yeah, what, what a shame that he should die that way. But in the same, at the same moment, glorifies God. So John taught that they that people needed to bring forth the fruits that were worthy of repentance. Not just to say how holy they were and godly they were, but to confess their sins and then turn away from that behavior. Don't just keep confessing it over and over and over again. Well, I confess it again and and so now I'm clean. I can go, go commit it again. That's not at all the idea is. The the idea is, rid yourself of of that and and live in in accordance with, with God's will. And of course, if they, if they did that, they would benefit from, from the from not only from John's death, but also from Christ's death as as well. I'm, I'm looking. Glen, at at Luke, chapter three, and and then, beginning in verse 10, The people asked him, asked John, saying, What shall we do then? He answered and saith unto them, He that hath two coats, let him impart to him that hath none, He that has meat let him do likewise. Then came also the publicans to be baptized. And keep in mind, of course, the cup the publicans were the tax collectors, and they were the bad guys, as far as people of Israel were were concerned, because they they served the Roman government. So then came also publicans to be baptized, and said, Master, what shall we do? And he said unto them exact no more than that which is appointed you. And the soldiers likewise demanded of him, saying, And what shall we do? And he said to them, do violence to no men, neither accuse any falsely, Be content with your wages. In each one of these cases, he hit the nail directly on the head with what was usually the problem with these various people that were involved in in sin, and hopefully many of them responded.
Glenn:Well, whether they were sinning or not, John was teaching them many of the same things that Christ taught. He taught them, benevolence, honesty, fairness, avoiding violence, extortion or lying, avoiding greed, and things of that nature, much of the same things we associate with Christ teaching, particularly if we were to read the Beatitudes. So John also preached the coming of the Messiah, or coming of Christ. In Mark one, seven through eight, says, And preach saying, There cometh one mighty mightier than I the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to stoop down and loose. I indeed have baptized you with water, but He shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit. And also Acts 19 verse four says, Then said Paul ,John, verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people that they should believe on Him, who should come after him. That is on the Christ. And of course, this passage in Acts 19, that's when Paul later on, after Christ's death, His burial, his resurrection and his ascension to Heaven. Paul was. was teaching that these are the things that John taught years ago.
Arnie:And and what John taught was not just limited to moving people to become baptized and have their sins washed away. He He wanted also for for them to to become more mature in their faith and in their relationship with with God. And so one of the things that he did there was that he taught them to pray. Uh, a lot of times people become, get to where they they think that the pastor or the the priest or whoever it is that that represents their religion, that those individuals take care of all of those things. Prayer ought to be a part of everybody's life, life and don't just rely on somebody else to to pray for your behalf. Pray for the things that you need. And one of the things that we need is, is forgiveness of of sin. So in, in Luke, chapter 11 and and in, in verse one, It came to pass that as as he, he's speaking of Jesus, As he was praying in a certain place, when he sees, one of his disciples, said to him, Lord, teach us to pray as John also taught his disciples. That's, that's John recognized that as being a part of his mission as well, not just to get people down into the river and get them wet and and wash away those sins, but for them to to learn to be spiritual in their relationship with God and to pray.
Glenn:And then, in Mark two, verse 18, it says, And the disciples of John and Pharisees used to fast, and they came and said to him, Why did the disciples of John and the Pharisees fast? But thy disciples fast not? So, they were asking Christ about about this, that why did the did the disciples of John fast? But Christ wasn't teaching his his disciples to fast. So it teaches it that, yes, indeed, John taught them to fast. He also pointed them to Jesus, the Messiah, John 1, 29, and 36 through 37 talk about that. And verse 29 of John one, The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world. And then verses 36 and 37, And looking unto Jesus as he walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God. And the two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus. So he he pointed the way, which was, as we read earlier, his primary mission to pave the way and point the way to Jesus Christ.
Arnie:John had known Jesus role ever since he was a babe in in arms, in fact, before, even before his birth, there and and we could read about that if we read about Mary visiting Elizabeth, his mother and so forth. But we'll, we'll pass on on that today. Uh, so John was always interested in bringing others to Christ. Not a bad idea for us to try to do the same thing our ourselves. We don't have to be John the Baptist to to persuade people, or try to persuade people, to live a life of of spiritual activity unto the Lord.
Glenn:Well, we're coming pretty close to the end of our our segment today. And John, he did perform his mission faithfully. In John 1, 15 says,John bear witness of him and cried saying, This was he of whom I spake. He that cometh after me is preferred before me, for he was before me. Uh, kind of a play on words in that, that passage in John saying that that he came after him, but he was before Him. Jesus was born, actually after John, but John says Jesus was before him. How you might ask, is that? Well, Jesus was God, and God was from beginning, beginning, therefore Jesus came before John. Then to wrap it up in John 1, 19, through 29, And this is the record of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, Who art thou? And he confessed and denied not, but confessed, I am not the Christ. And they asked him, What then? Art thou Elias? And he saith, I am not. Art thou the Prophet? And he answered, No. Then they said unto him, Who art thou that you may give an answer to them that sent us? What sayest thou of thyself? He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness. Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the Prophet Isaiah. And they which were sent, were of the Pharisees. And they asked him and said unto him, Why baptizest, baptizeth thou, then, if thou be not that Christ or Elias, neither that Prophet? John, answered him, saying, I baptize with water. But there standeth one among you whom you know not. He it is who coming after me is preferred before me, whose shoes latchet I am not worthy to unloose. These things were done in Bethabara, beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing. The next day, John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the
Arnie:And then they, of course, in in John, chapter one and and world. verse, verse 21 and you just read that that verse. I'm impressed by the fact that people were asking John because they recognized something different in John. They asked him. Said, what then art thou Elijah? He said, I'm not. Art thou that prophet? He answered, No. He wanted them to understand he was not the Messiah that was coming, but the Messiah was following behind him. This is a good stopping point. We appreciate you listening to us. We hope that you turn us in, tune us in again, next Lord's day, and we'll try to continue a little bit more about John the week, John the Baptist. We hope that you have a good week.