499: Who is John the Baptist? | Tim Henderson

Introduction

All right. I would like you to imagine that someone has chosen to write a biography about you. Finally, right? We're gonna tell the world how great you are. It's gonna be your story. You're the star of the show. You're the hero of this book. And just to make it more fun, we're gonna imagine that you really are exceptionally great. Greater even than you are in the real world. Okay? In fact, let's say that you are before all things. And in you, all things hold together. You are the image of the invisible God, the firstborn overall creation. By you, all things were created in heaven and on earth.

In the past, God spoke many times, in various ways. But in these final days, He has spoken through you. You are the heir of all things, the radiance of God's glory, and the exact representation of His being. I know that's heretical. You are none of those things. Only one man is, but just stay with me for a second. Okay? Imagine that when your biographer sits down to capture on paper your magnificence, your brilliance, your splendor, the incredible things that you have said and done, he doesn't make it 65 words before he shifts gears and starts talking about somebody else. He just veers off into somebody else's biography.

Would you find that strange, maybe even off-putting? Would you think, "Hey, focus right here." Because you guys, that is exactly what John does when he sits down to write his biography of Jesus. We are, as Sloop said, early in a series on John's Gospel. We just started a couple weeks ago. We're going to be at it for months, and as we're walking through this together, we really hope that you will just capture and follow the flow what John is doing.

We actually bought like a million copies of John's gospel in this special format that's like a page of John and a blank page—so that you can, if you want to, create your own annotated copy of John's Gospel. It might contain the stuff that we talk about here, things you guys are doing in your life group, observations you make in your own personal study. But we have them out there in the Narthex lobby thing, five bucks, there are costs, right? So just, if you want to grab one and then kind of follow along with us, we'd love you to do that.

When you do, or if you do, and you look at the, if you open that thing up, John 1:1, John starts off really strong with a really good focus on Jesus. How does he, how does he begin? How does John start in the beginning? What is the word? The word was God. The word is with God, okay? But then you guys, like, almost immediately and out of nowhere, he's like, "There came a man who was sent from God, his name was John." Like, John. What, what in the world are you talking about? And he goes on to talk about John for quite some time. His beginning of John's Gospel is like lofty, exalted, pre-existent eternality of the son and then in walks John. And it's just so odd. But what's stranger than that is that he's not the only one who does this.

Every one of the Gospel writers interrupts their own story by talking about this dude, John the Baptist, okay? And by the way, don't be confused. John's not talking about himself. He's not the John. There's John the author. There's John the Baptist. John the author is talking about this other guy, John. Mark does the same thing. Here's how Mark's Gospel starts:

In the beginning of the Gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God. It is written in Isaiah the prophet: "I will send my messenger ahead of you who will prepare your way, a voice of one calling in the desert, prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him." And so, John came, baptizing in the desert region and preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

Luke, same deal. In fact, some of you might remember, I don't know if people still watch it these days, but the Charlie Brown Christmas special, this thing is like etched in my mind. You remember when Linus says, I'll tell you what Christmas is all about. Charlie Brown, and he walks out on stage with his blanket, okay? Okay, we're gonna watch that scene because I like it, all right? So, here we go.

Is there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about? Sure, Charlie Brown, I can tell you what Christmas is all about. Lights, please. And there were in the same country shepherds, abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them. The glory of the Lord shone round about them, and they were so afraid. And the angel said unto them, "Fear not: for behold, I bring you tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you: Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger." And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men." That's what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.

Effective use of silence, don't you think? You guys, what is Linus quoting right there? Luke 2. Do you know why it's Luke 2? Because Luke 1 is about John the Baptist. Isn't that interesting?

Matthew, same deal. Matthew at least allows Jesus to be born first, but as soon as he is, before there's a single red letter, Matthew veers off and starts talking about John the Baptist. Like what in the world? Like, who is this guy? And why is he such a big deal? There's got to be a reason that everybody starts with him. Okay, so let's figure it out.

The Context of the Passage

Here's John's introduction of John the Baptist, verse 6.

There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to bear witness about the light that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.

Now, if you understand what John the author is doing here, you might say that he is beginning his court case. He's beginning his presentation, and he's just called his first witness. He calls my witness three times, right? He's desperately interested in building a case about the identity of Jesus. And John the Baptist is somehow going to be helpful in pointing to and explaining who Jesus is.

When John the Baptist was on the scene, he drew an enormous amount of tension, right? Mostly because he was willing to say true things even if they were unpopular. And partly because he said true things in ways calculated to penetrate rather than to soothe. He would say things like, "You brood of vipers. How will you ever escape being condemned to hell?" Okay, so he wasn't super, super tender in the way he would communicate. But his words drew so much attention.

The people wanted to know who he was, and so they began to interrogate him. And the big question before we get to who is Jesus is, who are you? All right, take a look at verse 19.

And this is the testimony of John when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, "Who are you?" He confessed, did not deny, but he confessed, "I'm not the Christ." And they asked him, "Well, what then? Are you Elijah?" He said, "I'm not." He had a prophet. He answered, "No." So they said to him, "Well, who are you?" We need to give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?

There’s a lot of background information that will be helpful for you to have here. Maybe some of you have it, maybe you don't. I'm going to want to make sure we're all kind of on the same page here. What these three questions reveal is that the Jews of that day were expecting specific, significant people to arise on the scene. They kind of have a roster with three empty slots. And they're like, "Are you this guy? Are you that guy? Are you this guy?" Their three slots are, "Are you the Messiah?" Okay? Shouldn't be shocking, I don't think, to many of you that, like, the Jews of that day were expecting a Messiah to come. Somebody's coming. Some divine person is going to redeem Israel, atone for sin, establish the kingdom, and there's this centuries-long search. Who is he? Who is he? Is he here yet? Is he here yet? That's generally known, but that wasn't the only guy they were waiting for.

The Jews at this time were also curious about Elijah coming and about the prophet coming. So what these guys are going to do is they're going to start at the top with their most important guess. Are you the Christ? And then they're going to work through Elijah and the prophet. Let's watch it all happen here.

They begin, "Are you the Christ?" And John's answer is absolutely not. No, not the Messiah. Okay, by the way, Messiah and Christ are the same word. Messiah is a transliteration. Christ is a translation of the same Hebrew word, right? Are you the Messiah? Are you the Christ? No. All right, next.

The next guess is interesting. Are you Elijah? So do this. Draw to your mind whatever it is that you know about Elijah. You have like a little bucket of information about him. What are the biggies about Elijah? Didn't die. That's huge, right? He just kind of gets just translated straight to heaven. What else? You got things on Elijah in your head? Say to get fire from heaven. Yes. So he's the one who kind of leads this thing where like he's going after the prophets of Baal, and they build these altars, and the fire comes down and laps up all the water in the trench and Elijah wins. He's the guy that was old, was a thorn in the side of King Ahab and Jezebel. They hated him, and he wasn't real fond of them. And there's just all this kind of churn goes on in his life. He was a pretty dynamic figure.

But there's this one other passage about him that's so intriguing and odd. Maybe you've seen this, but did you know that the very last paragraph of the Old Testament is about John the Baptist? The last book in the Old Testament is Malachi. Malachi chapter 4, and like literally the last, you know, 30 or 40 words in the Old Testament are about Elijah. And what it says is that before the Messiah comes, Elijah will come back. And so when they ask him, "Are you Elijah?" this is what they're talking about. Here's how this goes. It's Malachi 4, 5 and 6.

Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with the decree of utter destruction.

That's how the Old Testament ends. And so they're like, "Hey, is that you?" And John's answer is, "Nope, that's not me either." Now, to make it more complicated, that is John. Okay? We'll get to that in a minute. I know this is where that is him. Bear with me, okay? They move down their list. Next on their list is quote the prophet. Not a prophet, but the prophet. They're getting that out of Deuteronomy 18.

So Deuteronomy is, so they've been traveling around the wilderness for 40 years. They get to the river, they get to the Jordan. It's time to go in. Moses is denied access. He doesn't get to go in, so he gives a speech instead, and he recaps all that they've done. In Deuteronomy 18, he relays essentially this conversation that he had with the Father. It goes like this:

The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers, and it is to him you shall listen.

Let's skip down to verse 17.

And the Lord said to me, 'They are right in what they've spoken. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers.'

And the Jews have been waiting for that guy ever since. Some, essentially a new Moses. What Moses had been for them, they're supposed to be a new guy to come in and kind of fill Moses' shoes, and they're still waiting. They were looking for him.

So like, "Are you the Christ?" No. "Are you Elijah?" No. "Are you the prophet?" And in no surprise, John's answer is, nope. I'm not the prophet.

So then they're like, well, what? We're out of options. We don't know who you are. If you're not the Messiah, if you're not the new Elijah, if you're not the new Moses, who the heck are you? We need to give an answer to those who have sent us. And so then John finally answers.

And this is what he says in John 1:23.

I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness. Make straight the way of the Lord.

And when he says that, basically what he's saying is, you missed one. There's something you should have noticed in Isaiah 40. There's another description of a forerunner, of someone who would come before the Messiah, an advanced man, if you will, who will prepare the way of the Lord. And that is who I am. Okay? Now, Isaiah is an interesting book. And by the way, I know this is a complicated thing. You with me? We've got three characters—it might be the Christ, it might be the prophet—it's not, but it is. We'll get to that in a second. And now we've got this fourth option. You're the Isaiah 40 guy, right?

Isaiah is a funny book for a lot of reasons. It's actually a brilliant, incredibly insightful, full of Messianic content. Anybody know how many chapters Isaiah happens to have? You know, 66. Anybody know how many books in the Bible? 66. Did you know that Isaiah divides into two main sections? The first section has 39 chapters. The last section has 27 chapters. Anybody know how many books in the Old Testament? 39. Books in the New? 27. Okay, that's a curious little thing. And the whole thing you guys always say is just full of Messianic content. It talks about Jesus over and over and over again.

But that second section really picks up. It's really about what we call the suffering servant. It's probably the richest Old Testament imagery of the Messiah is that second half, the second testament, if you will, of Isaiah. And it begins after 39 chapters. The next chapter is chapter 40. And that beginning of the second half of Isaiah is what John quotes.

Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she is received from the Lord's hand, double for all her sins. A voice cries: "In the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord. Make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill made low. The uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed. All flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken."

In referencing all of that, the line that John pulls out is a statement, "Make straight the way of the Lord." Okay? The language here is that before the Messiah comes, someone will come, who will raise up the low places, grind down the high places, and smooth out the rough places. Basically, the image that he's building is that of a highway, a path. This guy is going to come before the Messiah comes, who will build a path from Jesus to people so that people can get to Jesus. And John is saying, "That's me. That's who I am." Right?

"I'm the highway builder." I will confess to you, it's surprising if John did not realize at this point that he was not only the fulfillment of Isaiah 40 but also the fulfillment of Malachi 4. Because in fact, he is both. And the reason that we know that he's both is that on at least two occasions, Jesus said so. And even when he was in his mother's womb, an angel told his father, "Yo, this is the Malachi 4 dude." So he should have known. I don't know what he meant when he said no. It's puzzling to me.

The forerunner of Isaiah 40 that John identifies as himself is the same person as the forerunner of Malachi 4. Here's Jesus commenting on all of this. Matthew 11:7.

As John the Baptist's disciples were leaving, Jesus began to speak to the crowd about John. "What did you go out into the desert to see? A reed swayed by the wind? And if not, what did you go out to see? A man dressed in fine clothes? No, those who wear fine clothes are in kings' palaces. Then what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet.

This is the one about whom it is written: "I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you." Okay, that's all Isaiah 40, and Jesus is like, "That's your guy." But he goes on and he says this:

I tell you the truth. Among those born of women, there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist. Yet he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it. For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. And if you are willing to accept it, he is the Elijah who was to come.

That's Malachi 4. Now, John is not like the reincarnation of Elijah. For one thing, Elijah didn't die, right? But he's come in the spirit of Elijah, and like Elijah, who was a weird dude and a truth-teller willing to disrupt people to point them to God.

John is going to show up and be a, be a just a weird guy, like Matthew and Mark, talking about where he wears camel clothes, likes to eat bugs—or at least he eats them. It's not clear if he likes it, but he does do it, right? He's a weird guy. He's a disruptor. But his whole life was about pointing people to Jesus, right?

This is going to be hard for John's followers. They're going to struggle significantly with jealousy because they're part of this team and they got all this attention and notoriety. But then when Jesus shows up, their crowds begin to shrink, and Jesus' crowds begin to blossom, and they're kind of, they're kind of put out. They're on the JV team and they're getting benched. They don't like it very much.

But John is unflinching. Probably, I would guess, John's most famous remark was: "He must increase, and I must decrease." John is not a jelly. He's like a best man, right? And he, he knows that the bride is not for him. The bride belongs to the bridegroom. We are the bride. Jesus is the bridegroom, and John gets it. He's like, I'm only the best man. She belongs to him because everything belongs to him, right? All things are made by him and for him, right?

So John's going to carry out his task, and his purpose is to call people to repentance, to put a finger on their sin, and to point them to the one who can forgive. And he's going to do it faithfully over and over again. And you know what happens to him because of this. Gets his head cut off, okay?

John was not just preaching the gospel out here, but he would be willing to talk about real sin in ways the people really didn't like. They got his head cut off. He called out the sexual immorality of a couple who did not appreciate it, so they had him killed. His head was literally served as a gift to an unhappy adulterous on a silver platter.

Telling the truth is a difficult job. It's an unpopular job, especially when the truth you are telling contradicts the lies that people want to believe. But it was John's job, and it remains our job because if people are never confronted with the truth, if they are never woken up to the destructive power of sin, then there’s less likely I think that they’re going to ever meet the Savior and know that they need him.

If nobody is ever willing to cut through the clutter to say unpopular things, then not only does sin spread, but cowardice spreads and silence spreads. Nobody else is talking, I might not either. But we are to be a people that are relentlessly truthful and relentlessly gracious. We should not be surprised if we're hated for it. But we will not hate in return. We will simply continue to say true things and continue to say them graciously.

Application

You guys, when Jesus came to earth, He sent a forerunner ahead of Him. John's job was to prepare people for Jesus so that when He arrived, they would be ready. His job was to proclaim both comfort and pardon to invite people to repentance and restoration, and to make a smooth path between the people and Jesus.

As the advanced man, that was basically his job, and God still uses advanced men and women. It is our job to speak of His kindness, to speak about sin, but then also to say, "This is the guy, this is the one I told you about. This is the great forgiver." So, to follow in John's footsteps is to enter the greatest adventure the world has ever known—to be part of that team that points people to Him, to accept.

The God is sending you just as surely as He already sent John. Living out your highest calling as a forerunner means pointing people to Christ. That is your highest purpose.

I doubt many of you are called to the outsized public proclamation or confrontational ministry that John was, but I am pretty certain that everyone in this room will have, has had, and will continue to have opportunities to speak about Christ, to say true things—even if they contradict people—to say them graciously, to absorb disdain or ridicule when you do, and then to say them again.

As you well know, one of the most outspoken proclaimers of the gospel on college campuses was shot and killed last week for the things he said. His confrontation of sexual immorality and false claims about gender, his proclamation of the gospel led inexorably to his death. He said some things that I disagree with. I think he probably said some things that you richly agree with. He definitely said some things that I think are true but have been mischaracterized and misrepresented.

Because we spent this last hour with Sloopers alluding to, at 10 o'clock, just having a conversation about the death of Charlie Kirk. And it's not because we want to lionize Charlie Kirk. Just like John the Baptist, Charlie would say, "I'm decreased, and He must increase," right? Of course, our proper focus is to be Jesus, but at this moment, at this cultural inflection point, it seemed it would have been a very negligent thing if we didn't stop and say, what, what could we learn? What should we learn?

If you were here, I hope that you found that to be a helpful time. If you weren't, we recorded it. This video and audio were all taped, and we hope that you might go back and listen to it.

You guys, I mean, if we follow John the Baptist, I don't think you're gonna have to eat a lot of bugs, okay? I don't think so. And I don't think anybody's gonna get their head cut off, but you never know. And it would be wise right now for you to make a decision: Will I be the sort of person that says true things, that says them graciously, that takes the hit, and that says them again?

What we were trying to do at that 10 o'clock hour was give you some frameworks, some thoughts, to count the cost and to consider: Will you be a person who says true things? I hope that whether you like Charlie Kirk or not, like me or not, that you might listen to that recording. We'll have it up on our website because I think this is an important inflection point.

And even if we disagree, this is the place—we are the people—that should be able to disagree with one another, love one another, listen to one another, and hear one another. John was a great forerunner, and Jesus said the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than John.

You are the least in the kingdom, and therefore you are greater than John. I hope that his life and his ministry might compel you toward greater boldness, greater kindness, greater truthfulness, greater love. That you will point people to the Savior, take the hit, and do it again.

I just wonder what you will affect. What will we as a community bring about? What will echo in eternity? Because you built paths between Jesus and the people who desperately need His grace. I think the way you'll build them is the way John built them: by saying true things, saying them graciously, unflinchingly, and when it becomes costly, doing it again.

Amen?

Conclusion

Lord Jesus, would you help us to be courageous, kind, thoughtful, honest, vivid, and clear—that we would persevere, endure, and learn. Whether we are or not, we pray that some people would. We don't want to be passed by or miss the opportunity to be part of what you are doing. We ask You, Holy Spirit, would you come in power, pour out Your Spirit, that we would be filled with boldness, humility, loneliness, courage. And would you pour out Your Spirit on all people, that there would be an awakening across this country—an awakening that reveals that something is wrong, that something is wrong with me, that we would recognize our need to repent, to bow before Your greatness. Would You do it, Lord? Would You do it at scale? Would You do it again and again? Would You bring a great awakening that puts the first and second in a smaller place, and that You would revive us, O Lord?

We love You. We need You.