What Does the Bible Say About John the Baptizer #3?

In this third episode, Arnie and Glenn continue discussing what the Bible says about John the Baptizer. We begin by noting that John, according to Jesus, was come to fulfill all righteousness. Part of that work was to identify Jesus as the Christ or Messiah. There are two sections of scripture that tell us of the duration of John's baptism. We discuss both of those sections which is very important to know. John's background, his birth and early life is what is noted next. John had righteous parents, and it is noted that his father, Zacharias, was a priest who served in the temple and his mother, Elizabeth, was a daughter of Aaron. Zacharias had been praying for his wife to have a child and was visited by the angel Gabriel while he was serving in the temple. Gabriel told him that Elizabeth would have a child, told him the name to call him and a number of other important facts that we discuss. Jesus' mother Mary was Elizabeth's cousin, and she went to visit her. We look at that visit and what occurred. This episode closes with John's birth, his naming and Zacharias's prophesy. Take about 30-minutes to listen in on our discussion. Have your Bible handy so you can verify what we are saying. There is a transcript of this Buzzsprout episode provided for your convenience.

Transcript

Fred Gosnell: 0:00

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@ftci.net or to Arnie Granke at agranke440718@twc.com.

Arnie: 0:33

Good evening. This is Arnie Granke and Glenn Landrum and Fred Gosnell is, is our engineer here today, Glenn and I will be talking about little bit about John the Baptist, because this is what does the Bible say. And the Bible has some pretty good information about John the Baptist. We're glad that you're listening if you happen to be in the Sumter South Carolina area, we would encourage you to drop by the church of Christ at Woodland. We're just about two miles east of the Shaw Air Force Base main gate. We worship and have Bible classes on the Lord's Day and and then also have another Bible class on Wednesday evening. So plenty of opportunities to come and be with us, and we would appreciate it and enjoy getting to meet you. Glenn and I were talking last week about the subject of baptism, specifically John the Baptist's baptism. And we we looked at the fact that immersion in water was for remission of sins. We also noted that there are a lot of churches that that teach things like, Oh, if there's an emergency, any element, you could throw dust on, probably, probably a little bit of wood chips or maybe some sand if you don't have water handy, and and, of course, we haven't found either one of those subjects in the Bible, it's just always been water. As a matter of fact, nobody would have had to go out into the wilderness where John was to be baptized. They could have just gone down to their neighbor next door and had him throw a little bit of dust on their head or whatever. Anyway, let's, let's talk about some other things with regard to baptism and and then we'll look at another subject as well. You want to take it there, Glenn?

Glenn: 2:55

So as Arnie had mentioned, we had talked about John's baptism and talk about its authority. His purposes is where we are now. And first we talk about the that it's an immersion in water for remission of sins. The second point we want to come to is is to fulfill God's righteousness. So in this point, John's baptism was being done, particularly the baptism of Jesus. When Jesus came to be baptized, it was in order to fill all righteousness. So what we read about Jesus and the church, to fulfill all righteousness is to fulfill the scriptures. There are three passages in the Old Testament that refer to the spirit resting upon Christ, and those are all in Isaiah. Isaiah 11, verse two says, And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of the counsel and and might, the spirit of knowledge, of the fear of the Lord. Isaiah 42 one says, Behold, my servant whom I uphold, mine elect in whom my soul delighteth, I have put my spirit upon him, he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. And then Isaiah, 61 verse one says, The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord hath anointed me to preach the good tidings to the meek. These three passages may mean a little more after we look at the next point, John's baptism was to identify Jesus as the Messiah. So we wanted to look at Matthew. I'm sorry, on Mark 3, 13, through, through 17.

Arnie: 4:57

I think that's Matthew, If I'm not mistaken?

Glenn: 5:01

It is, should be Matthew. One page says Mark. Other page says Matthew, where the scriptures are. So it is Matthew three.

Arnie: 5:10

I'm not a very good typist.

Glenn: 5:12

Well, either that or I'm not a good reader. But it says, Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan and to John to be baptized of him. But John forbade him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me? And Jesus answered and said unto him, Suffer it now to be name. Suffer it so to be now. For thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness. Then he suffered him, and Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of water, and low the heavens were opened up unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting upon him. And lo, a voice from heaven saying, This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. So we see that those three passages I read from Isaiah, they they marry up to this very well, for God is saying that his spirit is going to come upon Jesus,

Arnie: 6:10

Yeah, one of, one of the things that that we recognize is is this is one of those unarguable evidences that God has provided with regard to to Christ and and he very often performed miracles or things that ordinarily wouldn't have occurred that showed him, throughout his entire ministry, that he was, in fact, the Messiah. He was the Christ that God had had promised. So it wasn't just one of those things. If somebody wants to say, well, you know, maybe the bird just kind of settled down there on top of him and and whatnot. It wasn't anything like that. And certainly, John recognized the symbolism behind that, and everyone else did all the way for the next 2000 years. We we recognize that to be to be the case. So John, John identified Jesus as being the Messiah. I'm looking, Glenn, at at John, chapter one, beginning in verse 29, The next day John, seeth Jesus coming unto him and saith,, Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world. This is he of whom I said, After me cometh a man which is preferred before me, for he was before me. And that's an interesting thought, because John was six months older than than Jesus, at least from a human, human standpoint, and he recognized that that wasn't the measurement that that was going to account, uh, verse 31 And I knew him not, but that he should be made manifest to Israel. Therefore am I, therefore am I, come baptizing with water. And John bare record saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him, and I knew him not, but that he, that he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shall see the Spirit descending and remaining on him, the same is he which baptize with the Holy Spirit. And I saw and bear record that this is the Son of God. So he's not only the Messiah or the Christ, but he's, he's also the son of of God, and and people need to acknowledge that.

Glenn: 9:09

So we see that that John actually identified Jesus as the Messiah, the the Son of God. So we wanted to look next at how long did John's baptism exist? Uh, what was its duration? Uh, you could say until John's death, but actually it extended a little bit beyond that. Christ's baptism, which was mentioned by John, that that Christ would baptize both with water and the Holy Spirit, would begin on the day of Pentecost after Christ had died and he had ascended to heaven. So his baptism would have started at that point. But Acts 19 verses, one through five, tells us, And it came to pass that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul, having passed through the upper coast, came to Ephesus and fighting, finding certain disciples. He said unto them, Have you received the Holy Spirit since you believed? And they said unto him, we have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Spirit. And he said unto them, Unto what then were you baptized? And they said unto John's baptism. Then said Paul, John,verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people that they should be I believe on him which should come after him. That is on Christ Jesus. When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. So we find two things. We find that there's, there's actually a difference between John's baptism and the baptism of Christ. And that Apollos had been teaching to baptize people under John's baptism, which he was corrected by Paul as saying, No, we need, we need to baptize in Jesus name and in Jesus baptism. And so they did that.

Arnie: 11:12

Yeah, so, so even those people had their sin, their sins remitted, and those who died, for example, before Christ's death and resurrection, they were still covered because they had been baptized with with John's baptized those baptism. Those that that survived, you know, beyond that time should have been baptized again for the remission of sin, and that's exactly what Peter was declaring on the day of of Pentecost in in Acts chapter two. But I guess that's another subject.

Glenn: 11:54

That's another subject.

Arnie: 11:55

Huh?

Glenn: 11:56

That's another subject.

Arnie: 11:57

Yeah, so we, we'll talk about that on on another occasion, there .You were, you were in Acts chapter 19, just a moment ago. I have a passage here in in Acts chapter 18 that pertains to that subject as as well, Glenn. Starting in verse 24, A certain Jew named Apollos, born at Alexandria, an eloquent man, mighty in the Scriptures, came to Ephesus. The man was instructed in the way of the Lord, and being fervent in the Spirit, he spake and taught diligently the things of the Lord, knowing only the baptism of John. And he began to speak boldly in the synagogue whom, when Aquila and Priscilla had heard, they took him unto them and expounded to him the way of God more perfectly. And when he was disposed to pass into Achaia, the brethren wrote, exhorting the disciples to receive Him who, when he was come, helped them much which had believed through grace, for he mightily convinced the Jews that publicly and that publicly showing by the Scriptures that Jesus was the the Christ. So, so here it is. It was applicable, certainly up till, till that point, and and from then on, people were baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, for remission of sins.

Glenn: 13:46

For remission of sins. So we come now to looking at John's background, his birth and his early life. We've talked now about about who, who John was, a little bit about what his purpose was, the his authority and the duration of of his baptism. So looking at John's background, his birth, his early life, he had righteous parents. In Luke one, five through nine is a passage that lets us know something about that; There was in the days of Herod, king of Judea, a certain priest named Zacharias of the course of Abia. And his wife was the daughter of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth, and they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and

Arnie: 14:39

Right They were kin. ordinances of the Lord blameless. And they had no child because Elizabeth was barren, and they both were now well stricken in years. And it came to pass that while he executed the priest's office before God in the order of his course. According to the custom of the priest's office, his lot was to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord. So we find that they were, they were faithful people. They, they were

Glenn: 15:17

Oh, would you like me to continue? good people. We, we, I think we learned before that that Elizabeth was Mary, Jesus's mother's cousin.

Arnie: 15:32

Well, go ahead, yeah.

Glenn: 15:33

And so the the next passage we would like to take a look at would be Luke 1 , 10, through 22.

Arnie: 15:43

Yeah, pick up where you left off.

Glenn: 15:46

But then, so the angel Gabriel's visit to Zachariah at the temple we we learn about that in Luke 1, 10, to 22, And the whole multitude of people were praying without at the time of incense. And there appeared unto him, an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense. And when Zecharias saw him, he was troubled and fear fell upon him. But the angel said unto him, fear not, Zacharias, for thy prayer is heard, and thy wife Elizabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John, And thou shalt have joy and gladness, and many shall rejoice at his birth, for he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and he shall drink neither wine nor strong drink, and he shall be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother's womb. And many of the children of Israel shall turn to the Lord their God, and he shall go before them, before him, in the spirit and power of Elias to turn their hearts of the fathers to the children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready the people prepared for the Lord. And Zacharias said to the angel, Whereby shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife was stricken in years. \And the angel answered and said unto him, I am Gabriel that stand in the presence of God and have sent to speak unto thee and to show thee glad tidings. And behold, thou shalt be dumb and not able to speak until the day these things shall be performed, because thou believest not my words, which shall be fulfilled in their season. And the people waited for Zacharias, marveled that he tarried so long in the temple, and when he came out, he could not speak unto them, and they perceived he had seen a vision in a temple, for he beckoned into them and remained speechless. So we learn here that Zacharias was indeed a priest, and he was faithful. And we know we learn of God, how Gabriel, the angel of God, let him know what would be happening, that that they would have a son.

Arnie: 17:58

So the the description of what John's life was going to be like, clearly shows that he was going to be what was called in the in the Bible, a Nazarite. They were, there were restrictions about people who dedicated themselves as as Nazarites, and many things that they abstained from that others, very often would, would eat or drink or or do there, and Zacharias is not going to be a part of a part of that. So in Luke chapter one here and and verse 15, we see that that this is him being a Nazarite from from birth, He shall be great in the sight of the Lord. Shall drink neither wine or strong drink, and he should be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother's womb. Now we can learn a little bit about Nazarites and and the role that that they played, and the and the lifestyle that they that they pursued on in the book of Numbers in the Old Testament. Why don't we read that Numbers chapter six, and beginning at the first verse of of that; The Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel and say unto them, When either man or woman shall separate themselves to vow, a vow of a Nazarite, to separate themselves unto the Lord, he shall separate himself from wine and strong drink and shall drink no vinegar of wine, and that would be the alcoholic part of it, actually there and drink neither wine nor vinegar or strong drink. Lost my place there, obviously, Neither shall he drink any liquor of grapes, nor eat moist grapes or dried. So, no raisins. He's not going to eat raisins, which that would be pretty unusual for, for most people, I would, I would suspect; All the days of his separation, shall he eat nothing that is made of the vine tree, from the kernels even to the husk. And the days of the vow of his separation, there shall, shall no razor come upon his head until the days be fulfilled in which he separated himself unto the Lord. He shall be holy and shall let the locks of the hair of his head grow all the days that he separated himself unto the Lord. He shall come at no dead body. He shall not make himself unclean for his father, or for his mother, for his brother or for his sister when they die, because the consecration of his of his God is upon his head all the days of his separation. He is holy unto the Lord. And I think Glenn that a lot of people seem to confuse a Nazarite with a Nazarene. They're not the same thing. A Nazarene, which actually means a resident of Nazareth. And that would actually be a more correct use of the word then, then, generally, we, we find people speaking about that. But that's that's somebody from from Jerusalem. And Nazarites are those who comply with this, this particular oath that they take, a a sort of an oath, I guess you'd call it, that they take in, in the service of of God. So John probably was a man that had long hair, if he's living as a, as a Nazarene people real or as a Nazar a Nazarite. People very often think Jesus had long hair because he was from Nazareth. We don't know if he had long hair or if he I don't think he had a flat top, but he didn't necessarily have long hair. Long hair, you like that, being from, from Nazareth, he didn't, didn't do that, but John did. They lived this pure life throughout all of his days.

Glenn: 23:15

Yeah, and you mentioned this vow and the Nazarite, and that's, and that's, that's exactly what it was called in in the first verse of what you read moment ago. It calls it the vow of a Nazarite. And so there was a, it was a particular sect, a particular group of people that took this vow to to be righteous and holy to God. So we come now to to look at when, when Mary, Jesus' mother, came to visit Elizabeth in Luke 1, 39, through 44 says, And Mary arose in those days and went into the hill country with haste, into the city of Judah and entered into the house of Zacharias and greeted Elizabeth. And it came to pass that when Elizabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and she spake out with a loud voice and said, Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. And hence is this to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me for Lo, as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in my ears, the babe leap in my womb for joy. Some very important points in that that passage. One is when Elizabeth mentioned said, For the mother of my Lord. So Elizabeth was admitting that her Lord was going to be inside, or was inside Mary, her Lord, that would be Jesus. And then it also mentions that the babe leaped in my womb, that's John, leaped in her womb for joy. The baby John inside the womb actually had emotion when this event happened. Uh, very, very important that that we understand that, for it shows that there's a personality there. It shows that there's consciousness there and there's emotion and that it is a spiritual being. This is even before birth.

Arnie: 25:44

And it's really a tragic thing that that not only the United States, for so many for so many years, allowed infants that were unborn to be taken out of the womb and and allowed to die, or even even slain after they were brought out of the out of the womb. I think that that we're on the right track in that regard now, that that that has been has been ended because you're exactly right about about these characteristics being something that that an infant has. It's not not just because John was perhaps speaking or acting out of inspiration, that could be the case, but he nevertheless did have those characteristics, had the personality, and he was a spiritual being, being and and all of those that you mentioned there, Glenn. And I think we're much better off. We're we're closer, a little closer to being like the people that God would intend us to be. I don't think we're all there yet, but it's certainly a step in the right direction.

Glenn: 27:11

So we learn a little bit about about John here, about Mary visiting Elizabeth and both. Both are pregnant night and but then we come with who the birth and naming of John in Luke, 1, 57, through, through 66. Now Elizabeth, full time came that should be, should be delivered, and she brought forth a son, and her neighbors and her cousins heard how the Lord had showed great mercy upon her, and they rejoiced with her. And it came to pass that on the eighth day, they came to circumcise the child, and they called him Zacharias, after the name of his father, and his mother answered and said, No, not so, but he shall be called John. And they said unto her, There is none in thy kindred that is called by this name. And they made signs to his father how he would have him called. And he asked for for a writing tablet, and wrote saying his name is John. And they marveled all. And his mouth was open immediately, and his tongue loosed, and he spake and praised God. And fear came on all that dwelt around about them, and all these sayings were noised abroad throughout all the hill country of Judea, and all they that heard them laid laid them on their hearts saying, What manner of child shall this be? And the hand of the Lord was with him,

Arnie: 28:48

Very, very clearly, what occurred with with Zacharias was miraculous and and so that served to verify that he wasn't just, you know, writing this down and and them taking his word for it. It was supported by the miracle of him having recovered from from the situation that it had there for the remainder of his of his son's, what pregnancy? Oh, are we out of time? Oh, my.

Glenn: 29:29

We looks like we are just about out of time.

Arnie: 29:31

Well, well, we are. So, we hope that you'll listen to the things that we've said, maybe maybe even play them over again and have faith in the things that the Bible says. It's not because Glenn and Arnie, Arnie read these passages to you. It's because God put it in his word and and if we want to be people of God and have blessings from him, we certainly need to obey His, His word. We thank you for listening. We hope you'll have a good week, and we'll look forward to being with you again next Lord's Day.