What Does the Bible Say About John the Baptizer #6?

In this final episode, Arnie and Glenn discuss that John sent his disciples to Jesus while he was in prison for their benefit. The miracles that Jesus performed and the fact that the poor heard the gospel provided them the evidence that Jesus was the Messiah. A couple of passages were next noted that showed how John closed out the Old Testament period of prophesy. It was also mentioned that there was a lot of violence that occurred whenever the kingdom was discussed. The fact that John saw the kingdom at hand but was never in it was looked at next. John's imprisonment and death close out this episode. John had criticized Herod for taking his brother Phillip's wife who because of it wanted him dead. Arnie and Glenn discuss at length what led to his death at the hands of Herod the Tetrarch. 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@ftc-i.net or to Arnie Granke at agranke440718@twc.com or to Glenn Landrum at

Arnie: 0:41

Good afternoon. This is Arnie Granke and Glenn Landrum scbamaboy2003@yahoo.com and Fred Gosnell. And this is what does the Bible say, that's brought for you, brought to you by the church of Christ at Woodland in Sumter, South Carolina. If you happen to be in the the Sumter area, whether you're doing some sight seeing in in our beautiful area, or if you perhaps are here on a temporary or even permanent assignment at Shaw Air Force Base in in our region here, we're right close to to all of those things. We hope that you'll drop in and and worship with us on the Lord's day, morning or evening, and and also consider a Bible class with us on Sunday mornings and and Wednesday evenings. And we would look forward to having you with us. We've been, we've been talking about John the Baptizer. John the Baptist is what you usually read in in the Bible. He wasn't a Baptist. He was a baptizer. The word baptism has to do with with immersion. And that's, that's why he was that's what he was noted for, and and how that that term was applied to to him. And I'm going to pass it over to Glenn and and what's the first thing that we want to notice this afternoon, Glenn?

Glenn: 2:21

Well, last week, we left off speaking of John's testimony of Jesus. If you remember, back in the beginning of our study on John, it was mentioned that John's mission, or his primary reason for preaching and baptizing was to prepare the way for Jesus, the Messiah, the Savior. So here we are seeing his actual testimony of Jesus. We saw last week that John's testimony was rejected by the religious elite or religious leaders, the Pharisees and the chief priests. Why is it so often that it's this way, that the very men or very people who are supposed to be leading the way get so bogged down and actually impede our our journey? So today we're starting with John sent His disciples to Jesus, and so we want to look at Matthew 11, two through 13. Now, when John had heard heard in prison, in the prison that the works of Christ, he sent two of His disciples, and said unto them, Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another? Jesus answered and said unto them, Go and show John again those things which you do, hear and see. The blind receives their sight and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them. And blessed is he whoever shall not be offended in me. And as they departed, Jesus began to say unto the multitudes, concerning John, what went you out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken in the wind? But what went you out for to see, a man clothed in soft raiment? Behold, they that wear soft clothing are in King's houses. But what went ye out to see, a prophet? Yea, I say unto you, and more than a prophet. For this is he of whom it is written. Behold, I send my messenger before thy face. Which shall prepare the way before thee. Verily, I say unto you, among them that are born of women, there has not risen a greater than John the Baptist, not withstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. And from the days of John the Baptist, until now, the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force for all the prophets and the law prophesied until John.

Arnie: 5:16

So, of course, Jesus was responding to to their question, not as as though John needed to to learn a lesson about who Jesus was. John already knew. He had known that all his life who who Jesus was. This was for the benefit of John's disciples, so that they would recognize that Jesus is, in fact, the the long awaited Messiah. And and back in in verse four of that segment that you just read there, Glenn, Matthew, chapter 11, verse four, Jesus answered and said unto them, Go and show John again those things which ye hear and see. And and it's not for John's benefit, understand, as they're reporting to John what they saw. They're they're learning themselves who Jesus is, and who what the relationship was with with John. Verse five says, The the blind receive their sight. The lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and deaf hear, that the dead are raised up, the poor have the gospel preached unto them. That's the only thing that that's just a normal situation. Everything else was miraculous. That was that was being discussed, that that Jesus was was doing. And and the the men that John had sent surely recognized that them themselves, and so they would conclude that that blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in in me. So so Jesus gives us, gives these signs what was occurring right there while they watched Him, while they listened, and that certainly, that certainly was evidence for for what John had sent them to check out.

Glenn: 7:38

Yeah, and there's another passage that goes goes along with with that Arnie just just read, which that, that passage that he just read, was included in what I had read before. But John 7, 21, through 24 reiterates the same thing. Jesus answered and said unto them, I have done one work, and you all Marvel Moses therefore gave unto the circumcision, not because it is of Moses, but of the fathers. And you, on the Sabbath day, circumcise a man. If a man on the Sabbath day receive circumcision, that law of Moses should not be broken. Are you angry at me because I have made a man every wit whole on the Sabbath day? Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment. So now Jesus was, he was, he was offering them signs as evidence, both of him and of Jesus' validity, that Jesus was truly from God.

Arnie: 8:47

And, and, of course, that that's, that was an interesting item that that was presented here to these, to these individuals who were, who were going to go back and report to John what they had heard and and seen. The one viol, if you want to call it a violation, the the one exception, I guess, would be a better, a better term to to the Sabbath rule was the the matter of circumcision. Back in in Genesis, chapter 17 and and verse verse 12, actually, we'll start back in in verse 10. This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee. Every man child among you shall be circumcised. You shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin, and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you. He that is eight days old; well that that prevents you from missing any Sabbath days you're going to have at least one Sabbath day in in that period of time, and and possibly even two. So that would be the exception to the to the, to the Sabbath rule. He that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man child in your generations, he that is born in the house or bought with money of any stranger, which is not of of thy seed, he that is born in thy house, he that is bought with any money, must needs be circumcised, and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. So there certainly is no exception to that. And let me take you also to to the book of of Leviticus. In Leviticus, chapter, chapter 12 here, trying to, trying to turn there and and get there and and notice that in in verse three, it's, it's noted here we'll start at verse verse one, The Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If a woman have conceived seed and born a man child, then she should be unclean seven days, according to the days of the separation for her infirmity, shall she be clean. And in the eighth day, the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised. So so no exception allowed here in in the old testament to that rule, and that would be the only, the only thing different from what you would expect with regard to observance of the Sabbath day.

Glenn: 11:54

Now, a lot of times we we kind of get confused, or we wonder about what, what was the or when was the time when the preaching of the Old Testament, how long did it go and when did did that for the New Testament begin? Well, John closed out the prophecies of the Old Testament. And there's two passages we want to look at, and the first one is Matthew 11, verse 13, For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. So we have scripture that actually tells us when the Old Testament prophecies went, until. And then also Luke 16, 16 says, The law and the prophets were until John. Since that time, the kingdom of God is preached and every man presses into it. So this is an important point. We talked last week, a little bit about this, about the Kingdom of God. We we refer to a passage in Colossians, one, verses 13 through 18, and we know we mentioned there that there were three terms used for the for the kingdom of God. First, it was the kingdom of his dear Son in verse 13, and then the last two were the body and the church. Now all three of those refer to the kingdom of God. So, John, pre, preached and the the Old Testament prophecies went up until that time, and then it was the preaching and prophecies for the New Testament.

Arnie: 13:39

One, one of the things that certainly distracted a lot of these, these Jewish people were, were the fact that John was even baptizing people on on the Sabbath day and and he was the last of the prophets, nobody else came after him with with prophecy. And so there was violent opposition that was always being arrayed against the kingdom. And it started against John, very, very obviously. In Matthew chapter, chapter 11, Verily I say unto you, among them that are, Matthew 11, verse 11, Verily I say unto you, among them that are born of women, there hath not risen a greater than John, the Baptist. Not withstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. So one of the things that we that we learn about here is that John does not count as one who was, was in that kingdom that that Jesus is speaking about, and Matthew is is writing about. He actually died before the kingdom came into being. He and of course, we'll talk about the fact that of how he died, he was put to death. He was murdered by the king under false pretenses.

Glenn: 15:28

But John did say that he saw it at hand. He knew that the the kingdom was was about to come. And I believe we mentioned before that if you if you'd really like to research and take a look at when the kingdom began. You can look at Acts two, and you'll see where, where Peter preached that first gospel sermon. And as a result of preaching the gospel sermon, those that were present, they asked, Men and brethren, what's what shall we do? And in verse 38 of Acts two, Peter said, Repent you and be baptized everyone of you. And then Father Son and Holy Ghost. So, so we find, I find there. This is the point where the kingdom of Christ, or the kingdom of God, began. So, John was imprisoned, we know, and he he died while he was in prison. So Herod, Antipas imprisoned John because Herodias, his wife, wanted it to be that way. John, 14, verses, three and four says, For Herod had laid hold on John and bound him and put him in the prison for Herodias sake, his brother Philip's wife. For for John said unto him, It is not lawful for thee to have her. In other words, Herod had taken his brother's wife and was having marital relations with her, and so John, having the courage to do so, told Herod the Tetrarch, or like a governor, told him, Hey, you're not doing right. You're doing things against God. And Herod didn't like that.

Arnie: 17:18

Now a lot of people just don't like being told that they're religiously wrong or morally wrong or or anything of that sort. And so he certainly entertained his, his wife's demand and and of course, the question was, was asked, Well, you know what he what do you want? The the daughter had danced for for his birthday, and she said she wanted John's head on the charger. And, and he didn't have enough moral integrity to deny that and do what was right and and so he sent for for John to be to be slain, to be to be put to death, and she would have killed him or herself. I would, I would suppose there. Mark chapter 16, verse nine, says, When, therefore, Herodias had a quarrel against him and and would have killed him, but she couldn't. So she she had to have her, have her husband, take care of of that, and then when he would have put him to death, he feared the multitude because they counted him as a as a prophet. So at any point, the daughter so Salome, who had, who had danced at at Herod's birthday party. We don't know exactly how old she she was. She's guessed that it she may have been approximately 20 or, or 30, 30, years old. She, of course, manipulated, helped to manipulate Herod, to get rid of of John. And in Matthew chapter 14, beginning in in verse six, When Herod's birthday was kept, the daughter of Herodias danced before them and pleased Herod, whereupon he promised with an oath to give her whatsoever she would ask. And she being there before instructed of her mother said, Give me here. John Baptist's head in a charger, on a on a silver plate. And the king was sorry, nevertheless, with a oath sake and them that sat with him at meat, he commanded it to be given her. So he was a man who had zero integrity and and actually was a coward in it what he did.

Glenn: 20:22

Right? So he, he kept his promise to her, though, uh, he, he told her that he, he would give her anything she wanted. That's what, that's what Salome asked for, because her mother told her to ask for that. So Herod commanded John's execution. We'll see that in Matthew 14, 10, through 11, and he sent and beheaded John in prison. And his head was brought in a charger and given to the damsel ,that's Salome, and she brought it to her mother, Herodias. The public reason given for executing John, apparently, was alleged efforts to cause rebellion. Then we would find this not in in Scripture, but in in secular historical documents. Josephus, had wrote in the his works, Antiquities and chapter 18, verses five two. So Herod feared lest John's great influence over the people might put it in his power or inclination to raise a rebellion according he was sent a prisoner out of Herod's suspicious temper to Machaerus, and was there put to death.

Arnie: 21:48

What a tragic, what a tragic thing. And, and yet, all of all of that had been known before of of God and, and it certainly proved the fact that the things that the government would do were were not in keeping with the things that that godly people would would have done. And of course, when, when John was executed, disciples came to Jesus and and informed him with the with the tragic news. And in John, in Mark chapter 14, and beginning in in verse 12, His disciples came and took up the body and buried it, and went and told Jesus. When Jesus heard it, he departed thence by ship into a desert place apart. And when the people had heard thereof, they followed him on foot out of of the seat, out of the cities. So Jesus retired to a a remote location there where where he can rest. But there's, there was never any rest for him. People always followed him and and wanted the things that he provided for them,

Glenn: 23:21

Arnie, I think you mentioned that that was Mark 14, but that was actually Matthew 14.

Arnie: 23:28

Oh, did I say that?

Glenn: 23:30

So, so if you're if you're following along and you want to see the Scripture, look at Matthew 14, verses 12 and 13. And that's what Arnie just read. But later, Herod feared Jesus, thinking he was John resurrected, and he was perplexed. Let's look at Luke nine, verse seven, says, Now Herod the Tetrarch heard of all that was done by him, and he was perplexed because that it was said of some that John was risen from the dead. So he didn't know exactly what was going on, and he thought maybe John was come back. You remember we talked about, he, he was, he was really kind of upset and kind of afraid of John, because John had the courage to tell him that he was doing wrong, and he put John in prison, and also had him, had him beheaded, and he thought maybe John was come back, being resurrected, and he was afraid something was going to happen to him, because John was come back. I'm going to let Arnie explain this note that he has from a point from Strong's it's number 1280.

Arnie: 24:50

Yeah. In Mark chapter six and verse 14, The king, Herod heard of him for his name was spread abroad, and he said that John the Baptist was risen from the dead. Therefore mighty works do show forth themselves in him. Others said, That, that is Elias. And others said, That is a prophet, or as one of the prophets. But when Herod heard of it, he said, It is John whom I beheaded. He is risen from, from the dead. And interesting, interesting, diaporo,, number 12 0, 1280, if you happen to like to chase down some of the Greek words, denotes not to know what to what to do. So that that was the dilemma that Herod had to cope with there, not being sure exactly where to go from, from there, and probably just not wanting to be embarrassed more than more than anything, I don't think that right or wrong was an issue for him. He would do whatever, whatever he wanted to do.

Glenn: 26:15

Yeah, obviously that was the case. And there's another passage we want to look look at in relation to that. And that's Luke 23, six to 12. When Pilate heard of the of Galilee, he asked whether the man were Galilean, and as soon as he knew that he belonged to under Herod's jurisdiction, he He sent him to Herod, who himself also was at Jerusalem at the time. And when Herod saw Jesus, he was exceeding glad, for he was desirous to see him of a long season, because he had heard many things of him, and he had hoped to have seen some miracle done by him. Then he questioned him in many words, but he answered him nothing, and the chief priest and scribes stood vehemently accused him, and Herod, with his men of war, set him at nought and mocked him and arrayed him in a gorgeous robe and sent him unto Pilate. And the same day, Pilate and Herod were made friends together for before they were in enmity between themselves. So another point about the situation with Herod and John and Jesus. So we see that Herod, he wanted to see, to see Jesus, and he wanted to see, possibly see some miracles from Jesus, but ended up he, he delayed, delivered him Pilate.

Arnie: 27:51

So you know, here, here's a statement that that Jesus made in Matthew, chapter 11, and and verse 11, he said, Verily, I say unto you, among them that are born of women, there have not risen a greater than John, the Baptist, not withstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. And of course, the reason for that is John was not in in the kingdom. And that didn't mean that he wouldn't be in heaven or anything of that, that sort, just that he wasn't in the kingdom himself. And you know there, there's no higher recommendation that can one can receive than Jesus paid to John, the Baptizer. The man who prepared the way before him, and there will be no greater reward, even for us, who are in the kingdom of heaven, than the one reserved for the prophet who saw the kingdom when it was near at hand, but whose mission was so violently completed before it arrived. And and simply, one of the things that is of the greatest importance, wherever you are in the world, whatever nation you happen to be a part of, is is, Are you in the kingdom of heaven? You can be in the kingdom of heaven if you obey the gospel, if you hear the gospel and and repent of sin, if you believe the things that that the gospel teaches and and are willing to obey the will of God you can become a Christian. That automatically puts you in the kingdom of heaven and makes you a child of God and with a hope of eternal life. We hope that you take that option and not pass it by. We thank you for listening with us this afternoon, we look forward to being with you again next Lord's day. God be with you until then.