Who Was John The Baptist?

In this, our Understanding the Scriptures segment, we are in the gospel of Matthew, Matthew:3:1In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea,
See All..., Dave. We mentioned last week that we’re going to talk a little bit about John the Baptist. “In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judea,” Let’s just start with that. John the Baptist, definitely an interesting character in the Bible, but what was this all about, John the Baptist, what was he baptizing for?

Dave:

Well of course, he was foretold in the scriptures, this one who would say, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his path straight, the forerunner of the Messiah who would prepare the people to accept the Messiah. And well, it didn’t work, I mean, some people came out and they repented but—

Tom:

And Dave, how did baptism fit into that?

Dave:

Well, it’s a symbol of washing, and it was used in the Old Testament.

Tom:

Mmhmm. Cleansing kind of thing?

Dave:

Right. Yeah, repentance is a tough one. The Bible does—Paul went everywhere preaching repentance toward God, this is Acts 20, faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. But—

Tom:

That’s what? Turning to God. 

Dave:

Yeah.

Tom:

Growing up as a Roman Catholic, that word was foreign to us, we had the word “penance.”

Dave:

Right.

Tom:

There were certain things that we needed to do to pay for our temporal sin.

Dave:

Right. But even here, Tom, we have a problem because our hearts are deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. So, when the governor of New York repented, he said he was sorry, you have to ask yourself a question; supposing he hadn’t been caught, was he really sorry for what he did, or was he sorry that he got caught, was he embarrassed by being caught? Same thing would be true of Ted Haggard, Oh he repented, or Jimmy Swaggart, who repented in tears.

Tom:

Because of the sexual things.

Dave:

Right but, if he hadn’t been caught, would he have repented to God?  Would they still be doing this? Now we have a problem even with repentance. Is my repentance genuine, or is it just something I feel I have to say because of the embarrassment of getting caught? So, it’s going to take a work of the Holy Spirit to bring someone to repentance, to be real genuine repentance. And, John the Baptist is calling Israel to repentance. They’ve got plenty to repent of, just read the prophets. I was reading some of the so-called minor prophets this morning. Wow! Joel and Amos, and so forth. What Israel did, their rebellion against God, and the sin—the wickedness of these people, they’ve got a lot to repent of. And you can’t just say to the Messiah, O, yeah, we want you to be the King, O sure, come and reign over us. Wait a minute, well God has already said, I don’t want anything to do with you people. So, you can, we can understand that repentance was a necessary procedure to prepare the way for the Messiah, and it didn’t work.  

Tom:

Verse 2: “And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.”

Dave:

Well, I was raised in a very strict group of believers, real believers, and I can tell you in our fellowship you were either saved or lost, and everybody knew who was saved and who was lost, not like churches today. You’ve got an awful lot of people in there who aren’t even saved, who are just coming and pretending to be Christians.

Tom:

How did they know, Dave? Isn’t this a heart thing?

Dave:

Yes, but you knew in your heart, and you would tell it, and people saw a change, I mean, it was like night and day. People were really transformed when they got saved, and they were part—now part of this fellowship. It’s pretty loose today. We were very strict about the Bible but we also—I was just a child in those days. We also had our arguments about the Bible. For example, there were those who saw—it says, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand, and they would say, Now you see, Matthew, he’s presenting the kingdom of heaven. But then the other gospels are talking about the kingdom of God. Now there is a big difference between the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of God, we’re going to split hairs over this. Well, it’s simple common sense, just look it up in your concordance, read everything that Matthew says about the kingdom of heaven, read everything the other gospels say about the kingdom of God, and there is no difference! It’s a synonym, God dwells in heaven. Okay, but they, wow, they come up with all kinds of nuances about this, and so forth. So, all I brought that up for was to say, I don’t think there’s a difference between the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of God. Now I’ve offended some people out there, if they’re even listening to us at all, they may have been offended long ago. But, the kingdom of heaven is at hand! Well, in other words, this is being offered to you right now! John the Baptist was preparing the way, here’s the Messiah, and it’s going to bring heaven on earth, the rule of the Messiah. But not just on the throne of David, it will have to be in your hearts! The King has to reign in your heart. Now, in the millennium, this is not the kingdom that’s talked about, it’s not the kingdom of heaven or the kingdom of God. It’s not the kingdom that Jesus said, Except a man be born again he can’t even see the kingdom of God, He’s talking about the kingdom of God now, it’s the same thing. How do we know that? Well because, there will be a lot of people—but the millennium is not this—there will be a lot of people in the millennium who have not been born again. But Jesus said you can’t even see it without being born again. And then Paul says, in 1 Corinthians 15, Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. You got a lot of flesh and blood people there. So therefore, this is when the scripture will be fulfilled, He will rule them with a rod of iron. You don’t have to rule in heaven with a rod of iron, because they’re there by choice, and He has captured our hearts and we love Him. So, just a little aside about the kingdom of heaven, and what it might be, well, let me put it like this, the Bible promises a new heavens and a new earth. There’s going to be a kingdom of a new heaven and a new earth, and it’s very simple. He’s going to let go, 2 Peter Chapter 3, He’s going to let everything go. We don’t even know, the scientists, what is it, the strong force the weak force, how come you got in the atom, you’ve just got a proton and a neutron. Well, neutron has no charge, protons are positive, all positive charge, the electron with a negative charge is circling the atom. That atom should split! It should tear apart, and scientists today do not, cannot tell you—oh they talk about cosmic glue, and so forth. Why does it hold together? The Bible uses rather a scientific language when it says, In Him all things consist, all things hold together, and Peter tells us He’s going to let go! Well, you’re going to be in the new heavens and the new earth, you will have to be a new creation, and you must have come to God through faith in Christ. There is no other way, you must be born again, that’s why Jesus said it!

Tom:

Verse 4: “And the same John had his raiment of camel’s hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins: and his meat was locusts and wild honey.” Now Dave, this is a strange looking character, I would think, but you know what’s interesting is the emphasis in the church today, through the Emerging Church, we’re now seeing a movement back to monasticism, back to the Desert Fathers, who were, they would say, hey, this is the way to spiritual holiness. Let’s start eating locusts, and get out, you know, and live in caves. We mentioned Brennan Manning, he did that for eight months, lived in a cave, and so on. That’s not the way to spirituality.

Dave:

No, it’s not, but it shows that John the Baptist was not interested in this world. You couldn’t entice him with riches or luxury, it’s pretty clear from his description.