John the Baptist

John the Baptist

Luke 4:18-19

He has sent me to proclaim freedom for-the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor

John the Baptist

Luke 1:12-17

When Zechariah saw hint, he was startled and was gripped with feat: But the angel said to him: "Do not be afraid, Zechariah: your- prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to give him the name John...

He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, for he will he great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from birth. Many of the people of Israel will he bring back to the Lord their God. 

And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous -- to make ready a people prepared fin- the Lord." 

I am sure that many people who read the Bible must have wondered about John, "If he were such a great man, why did he not become the chief disciple of the Son of God?" 

"For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John; and if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come." (Mat. 11:13) 

Jesus himself indicated the mission that John the Baptist came to fulfill: 

John the Baptist represented the consummation of the Old Testament, the law, and the prophets. He was the prince of the old age. Jesus Christ came as the prince of the new age. Had he been supported by John the Baptist, he could have stood upon the firm foundation of the Old Testament Age. Then the new age could have blossomed in the fertile soil of the accomplishments of the old age. The Son of God could have established his glorious kingdom at once. And John the Baptist would have been the cornerstone of that kingdom.

Had John the Baptist followed Jesus, the distinguished leaders of that society would have been the first to accept Jesus Christ as the Son of God. Then who would have crucified the Lord of glory?

When God sent his only Son to this world to establish his kingdom on earth, don't you think he wanted to be followed by the most able people of his age? Do you think that God wanted only the outcasts of society to follow Jesus? Not at all! The simple failure of John the Baptist broke the link between the Son of God and the people. As a result, only fishermen, tax collectors, harlots, and lepers followed Jesus Christ. This brought great grief to the heart of God.

The book of Malachi in the Old Testament had a parallel purpose to the Book of Revelation in the New Testament. It shows clearly the timetable and the last-minute description of how the Messiah would come.

In Malachi, you will find these words: "I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible day of the Lord conies." Mal. 4:5

Elijah had ascended into heaven in a chariot of fire in a whirlwind, according to the Old Testament. So people believed that Elijah would literally return from the blue sky in a chariot of fire and announce the Son of God. This is what the people expected.

But did Elijah cone? The problem was, Elijah did not return in the manner people expected. The people never heard anything about his miraculous return. However, one day a young man from Nazareth, whose name was Jesus, was being proclaimed by his followers as the Messiah, the Son of God.

Now this was Johns testimony when the Jews of Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask him who he was.

"He did not fail to confess, but confessed freely, "I am not the Christ."

They asked him. "Then who are you? Are you Elijah?"

He said, "I am not." "Are you the Prophet?" He answered, "No." John 1:19-21 

What was the people's reaction? "Impossible!" they said. "How could Jesus of Nazareth be the Son of God? We have not heard anything about Elijah." No Elijah, no Messiah. In order to accept Jesus Christ as the Son of God, they would have had to disregard their 4,000-year-old tradition and throw their Bible away. But no one was willing to do that.

Malachi's prophecy of the coming of Elijah was indeed an obstacle to Jesus' successful ministry. When Jesus' disciples went out all over Israel teaching the gospel and proclaiming Jesus as the Son of God, the people repudiated their words, saying:

"If your master is the Son of God, where is Elijah?

The book says Elijah must come first. Jesus disciples were not well prepared to answer this question... So the embarrassed disciples one day decided to go to Jesus to ask for his help in the matter. An account appears in Matthew:

The disciples asked him, "Then why do the scribes say that first Elijah must come?" fie replied, "Elijah does come, and he is to restore all things; but I tell you Elijah has already come."... Then the disciples understood that he was speaking to them of John the Baptist. Matt. 17:10-13 

Let us imagine we could transpose these events to our time. John the Baptist of 2,000 years ago was a person of tremendous influence, enjoying great prestige all over Israel as a great man of God, just like Billy Graham of today, a great Christian leader. Let us say that some unknown young man suddenly appeared and began proclaiming himself to the world as the Son of God and saying that Billy Graham was Elijah. You would undoubtedly say, "Impossible! How could Billy Graham be Elijah? He did not come out of the blue sky. We all know he came from North Carolina!" Precisely this same kind of unbelief confronted our Lord Jesus Christ. Yet Jesus continued to preach with power and authority in spite of scornful public opinion. The people could not dismiss such a man lightly, so they decided to go ask John the Baptist himself and settle their questions once and for all. They asked John, `Who are you?".

John the Baptist denied everything. He said, "I am not Elijah." He even denied the title of prophet. Everyone knew and recognized him as a prophet of God, but he said, "I'm no prophet." Why? He evaluated the situation and knew that Jesus Christ was treated by his own society as an outcast. Jesus seemed to be a loser, and John decided not to side with Jesus. He thought it would be much better to deny everything.

By doing so, John the Baptist pushed Jesus into a corner, making him seem a great impostor without defense. After John's denial, Jesus had no further recourse on this point. We can read in Matthew that John the Baptist, waiting in prison to be beheaded, sent two of his own disciples to Jesus to ask the following question: "Are you he who is to come, or shall we look for another?" (Mat. 11:3) Is this the question of a man who has faith in Jesus as the Son of God? John the Baptist had earlier testified to Jesus at the Jordan River: "I have seen and have born witness that this is the Son of God." (John 1:34) Yet this very same person, with the very same tongue, was now confronting Jesus by asking, "Are you really the Messiah, or shall we go and look for somebody else?" How disheartening that question must have been to Jesus!

From the speech of Sun Myung Moon: The New Future of Christianity September 18, 1974