John the Baptist, the forerunner of Christ, points the people to Jesus, who is the promised Messiah, the Lamb of God.
The foretelling of John’s miraculous birth
Isaiah’s prophesy about the forerunner who will point to the Messiah
The Old Testament prophets spoke a great deal about coming judgment, but it is often interspersed with words of hope. The book of Isaiah is no different. There are two major sections of the book. In chapters 1-39, God’s sovereignty and His government is emphasized. In chapters 40-66, God’s salvation and His grace is the main focus.
As Isaiah transitions to the second part, He quotes God saying, “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God” (Isaiah 40:1). There will be coming a day when God Himself will provide a satisfactory sacrifice for the sins of His people. Those sins that have separated us from God will be pardoned. This sacrifice will not be made through the shedding of blood from an animal or by mere man. It will be made through Jesus Christ, who is God manifest in the flesh.
Through Isaiah, God foretold that He would send one who would be the bearer of such good news. He would be “A voice of one calling: ‘In the wilderness prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God'” (Isaiah 40:3). According to the gospels, this prophecy was fulfilled by John, the son of Zechariah (i.e., John the Baptist). See Matthew 3:3, Mark 1:2-3, Luke 3:4-6, and John 1:23.
Gabriel prophesies the birth of the forerunner who will point to the Messiah
One day when a priest names Zechariah was ministering in the temple, the angel Gabriel appeared to him. Gabriel told him that his prayer had been heard and that his barren wife, Elizabeth, would bear a child. This child would be a very special child, and his father was to name him John. (See Luke 1:11-17.) Upon hearing this, Zechariah asked Gabriel how he could be sure of this since he and his wife were well along in years. Therefore, because of his unbelief, Zechariah was told that he would be unable to speak until the angel’s message came true at the proper time.
Sure enough, Elizabeth became pregnant and she remained in seclusion for five months. She acknowledged that the Lord had shown her favor and had taken away her disgrace among the people. In the sixth month, Mary visited her relative Elizabeth soon after the angel Gabriel had told her that she would become the mother of Jesus. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, she was filled with the Holy Spirit and the baby inside her womb leaped for joy.
When the baby was to be circumcised, the people there were planning to name the baby after his father, Zechariah. But his mother spoke up and said his name would be John. Then they asked Zechariah, and he wrote out that “His name is John.” And immediately his speech was restored.
Very little is know about John’s early life before he began his public ministry. But Scripture does say, “And the child grew and became strong in spirit; and he lived in the wilderness until he appeared publicly to Israel” (Luke 1:80).
John prepares the people for the coming of Christ
John preached to the people of Judea, Jerusalem, and the nearby vicinity who came out to the wilderness to hear him. His message was clear. “Messiah‘s coming! Repent! Make sure your sins are forgiven so you’re ready when Messiah comes so we can receive His kingdom.” The people were ready to hear God’s message. They had been oppressed by the Babylonians, the Medo-Persians, the Greeks, and now the Romans. They were looking forward to the arrival of the promised Messiah, who they believed would rescue them from being ruled by Gentile nations.
John preached a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And if you want forgiveness of sin you have to repent. So, John fulfilled what was written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet. He was the voice of one crying in the wilderness, “Make ready the way of the Lord. Make His paths straight.”
The baptism that John required would be a very humbling act for the Jews. The only water baptism required in Jewish law, other than for ritual washing, was intended for Jewish proselytes. They would undergo baptism in order to become Jews. This baptism symbolized the washing away of their sins. Those who were Jews by birth already believed they were in good standing with God by virtue of their Jewish heritage. For Jews to be told they were unclean before God, just like the Gentiles, and that they needed to repent of their sins and be baptized, would be difficult for them to accept. Their willingness to undergo such a ritual would signify that a real change had taken place in their life in respect to sin.
The way of repentance.
According to Isaiah, John is the “voice of one calling in the desert.” I believe the desert here is referring to the unrepentant heart of sinful man. So, he is calling his hearers to prepare themselves to meet their long-awaited Messiah by means of a full repentance. This includes taking the following steps:
- “Make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God.” We have all wrestled with crooked sins: the devious, the deceitful, the lying, and the perverse things that take us off course. We’ve got to straighten out and deal with all the perverse, devious, deceptions of the heart.
- “Every valley shall be raised up.” Repentance involves an honest dealing with the depths of wickedness in your heart and mine.
- “Every mountain and hill made low.” Repentance also includes removal of the high points of pride and self-righteousness.
- “The rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain.” This could mean leveling off anything in your life that could be blocking the road of repentance. This could be self-love, it could be love of money, it could be love of the world, it could be lust of the flesh, it could be indifference, it could be apathy, it could be unbelief, or anything like that.
John baptizes Jesus and confirms He is the Lamb of God
Besides preaching repentance for the forgiveness of sins, John the Baptist, the forerunner, points to Jesus as being the long-awaited Messiah. Apparently, the day after Jesus had been baptized by John, John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29)
John had been sent to baptize with water. And the one who sent John told him that the one on whom you see the Holy Spirit come down and remain is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit. While John doesn’t report the baptism itself, the other gospels record the fulfillment of this unique sign. (See Matthew 3:13-17, Mark 1:9-13, Luke 3:21-22.)
But why would John initially object to baptizing Jesus, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” (Matthew 3:14). How could John have known Jesus was the Messiah before he baptized Jesus and witnessed the sign of the Spirit? It seems likely that John and Jesus would have known about each other since their mothers were related. (see Luke 1:36.) But John didn’t recognize Jesus when He came to be baptized by John. So, Jesus apparently told John who He was and why He came. The sign of the Spirit would have been John’s way to confirm the identity of Jesus as the Messiah.
Jesus puts John’s later doubts to rest
Herod, the tetrarch arrested John the Baptist sometime later, after Jesus had begun His public ministry. He did this because John had rebuked him for taking his brother Philip’s wife to be his own. So, he locked John up in prison. (See Luke 3:19-20.)
As John was languishing in prison, he soon began to wonder if Jesus was the one who was to come, or should they expect someone else. So, he sent his disciples to ask Jesus. John may have wondered while there seemed to be so much failure in Jesus ministry. After all, John was still in jail and Jesus was experiencing wide-spread opposition from the religious leaders. Jesus may have also appeared meek and mild rather than as a powerful political or military leader who would someday rule over Israel.
Jesus reply was that He was doing exactly what Scripture had foretold. He said, “Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive site (Isaiah 35:5), the lame walk (Isaiah 35:6), those who have leprosy are cured (Isaiah 53:4), the deaf hear (Isaiah 35:5), the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor (Isaiah 61:1). Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me” (Matthew 11:4-6).
Is your heart prepared to embrace Jesus Christ?
If you want to see the salvation of God and God’s power to forgive sins, then you have to prepare a path in your heart, a path of repentance of sin, the low sins, the high sins, the crooked sins, the clutter of sins and embrace Christ and His work for you with an attitude of repentance.
God calls us to be like Himself. Once we are saved, His will for us is our sanctification. 1 Peter 1:15-16 says, But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.” Our works can never save us, but faith without accompanying works is dead, according to James. (See James 2:14-25.)
Ask yourself two very important questions. First, are you sure that you’ll go to heaven when you die? Secondly, are you certain why God should let you into heaven? If you don’t know for sure, you can settle that matter today. Visit my post, How to Begin Your Life Over Again and you’ll know where and how you’ll spend eternity.
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