John the Baptist, part 3

Isaiah 40:1-5.  “Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the Lord’s hand double for all her sins. The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain: And the gory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the Lord hat spoken it.”

If you love Handel’s Messiah, you’re hearing the music right now! One of my best college memories is singing this particular passage with the concert choir, full orchestra, piano, organ, and outstanding soloists.  Such power!  Goosebumps still, after all these years. 

I didn’t know this was going to go on so long when i started it, but there is so much about this man that needs to be understood.  Fulfillment of prophecy, his message, the timing of his conception and birth, which was a miracle; his recognition of Jesus in utero, the baptisms he performed, and later, the end of his earthly life.  All of utmost interest to me. 

His message to the Jews was, “Repent!”  Of what did they need to repent?  All Jews knew that the coming of the King would  bring judgment of all that is evil.  They had heard the call to repentance and return to God all down through the centuries, but this was the most compelling call of them all. Before we address the repentance intended here, we need to take a look at the amazing words of Isaiah 40 that appear at the beginning of this post. 

Matthew does not give us the complete quote from Isaiah; that is reserved for Luke’s gospel, where Jesus is clearly presented to the Gentiles as well as the Jews. Salvation is to be for all flesh, not just the Jews.  And it is in the gospel of John where we see John the Baptist calling Jesus the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world. 

Matthew’s job, in his gospel, is to present Jesus to the Jews as King; that’s why we don’t have everything recorded in Matthew that appears in Luke and John concerning John the Baptist. To put all the pieces together, it is good to read each gospel’s account, keeping in mind the purpose of each gospel is different in its scope and presentation. 

Repentance, in its Old Testament sense, is God’s call to His earthly people to return to Him.  This is John’s message in this third chapter.  It is the Gospel of the Kingdom, not the Gospel of Grace which appears later.  The Gospel of Grace could not be clearly taught until Jesus’ work here was accomplished. John’s call here was for the people to return to the God of Israel. It was not a call to salvation, but to a return to the worship of Jehovah in the Old Testament sense. 

Neither was his baptism a baptism that followed salvation, but a baptism of repentance. In Luke 7, you can read John’s blunt, accusing words to the Pharisees and lawyers, who rejected baptism unto repentance.  These men felt no need to repent. After all, were they not the most religious, the most pious, of all the Jews?  The followed the Law to the least jot and tittle, and spent a lot of time making sure everyone else did the same. 

All right.  This is becoming lengthy.  Looks like Part 4 will be the next post. In the meantime, here’s something for you to enjoy: