WWUTT 792 The Last Prophet?

John the Baptist as the Last Prophet Before Christ

John the Baptist was the last prophet to proclaim the coming of Christ before he came. God even spoke to John and told him what to say, just as God spoke with any of his prophets when we understand the text.

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Here's our host, Pastor Gabe.

John 1 and the Testimony of the Baptist

Thank you, Becky. We come back to our study of the Gospel of John, chapter 1, and I will begin reading again in verse 19. As John wrote, this is the testimony of John the Baptist, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, Who are you?

He confessed and did not deny, but confessed, I am not the Christ. And they asked him, What then? Are you Elijah? And he said, I am not. Are you the prophet? And he answered, No. So they said to him, Who are you?

We need to give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself? He said, I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as the prophet Isaiah said.

Now they had been sent from the Pharisees, and they asked him, Then why are you baptizing if you are neither the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the prophet? John answered them, I baptize with water, but among you stands one you do not know.

Even he who comes after me, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie. These things took place in Bethany, across the Jordan, where John was baptizing. We go on from there. The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him and said, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

This is he of whom I said, After me comes a man who ranks before me, because he was before me. I myself did not know him, but for this purpose I came baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to Israel.

And John bore witness, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.

And I have seen and borne witness that this is the Son of God. So John the Baptist is asked by these messengers from the Pharisees, who he is, who are you claiming that you are? I mean, he's out there preaching, but what is he saying about himself?

Like do we need to dismiss you as a madman? Are you a blasphemer claiming to be the Messiah? Who are you? And John the Baptist says, Well, I'm the one that Isaiah prophesied about. The voice crying out in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord.

John the Baptist is essentially the final prophet before Jesus Christ, the promised Messiah shows up. He's preparing the people for the coming of the Messiah. And it's in Isaiah chapter 40, where we first see this prophecy starting in verse 3, 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 be made low. The uneven ground shall become level and the rough places a plain and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

And that's what we have in the words of Christ. We have the very word of Yahweh that has been spoken to the people of God, to all the earth for them to hear that the Lord has spoken through his son. So John the Baptist is preparing that way.

Now, the scriptures do equate this prophet with Elijah, not that he actually is Elijah, but that he has a ministry like Elijah. So the messengers of the Pharisees asked him, are you Elijah? And John the Baptist said no, even though Jesus with his disciples helped them to understand that John the Baptist is the fulfillment of the Elijah prophecy that was made about this voice crying out in the wilderness.

In Malachi chapter 4, starting in verse 5, we read, behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. And Jesus points out that John the Baptist is the fulfillment of that prophecy.

Going on into verse 6, he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction. Now, this is the very conclusion to the Old Testament.

These are the last two verses of the Old Testament before we get to Matthew. And then Matthew starts showing how all of these Old Testament prophecies are fulfilled in Christ, even how John the Baptist fulfills the Old Testament prophecy of Isaiah.

So again, these are the last words of the Old Testament are incredibly significant. I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes, and he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers.

This is through the prophet Malachi saying that great revival is coming. Fathers will be speaking to their children about the commands of God and children will listen to their fathers speak the commands of God and not necessarily in the literal sense like biological fathers speaking to their biological children, but that there will be those who will be entrusted with the gospel to go out and preach it.

And there are many who are going to believe the gospel that is being proclaimed. Well, they will become spiritual children of those who had proclaimed the gospel to them, for they will be born again and they will they will make those who preach the gospel into spiritual parents, into fathers, fathers and children.

This is the Apostle Paul who would say to somebody like the Corinthians, you are my children because I preach the gospel to you and you believed it and I am like a father to you. So that's the fulfillment of this prophecy that's made in Malachi.

Again, the last two verses of the Old Testament talking about this one who is going to prepare the way of the Lord and that great revival would come about. And indeed, that has happened through Jesus Christ exactly that way, that the gospel would be proclaimed and many thousands and then hundreds of thousands and then millions of people have come to know the gospel, if not billions by this point in time, there's two thousand years of church history that the gospel has been proclaimed to all the ends of the earth.

So incredibly significant, this prophecy we see at the very end of the Old Testament. And then we are introduced to the genealogy of Christ at the start of Matthew and we have the Christmas story. But then the first significant voice speaking in Matthew is John the Baptist, the last prophet who is proclaiming the coming of the day of the Lord.

So John the Baptist connects himself with that prophecy from Isaiah when the Pharisees are asking him, who are you? And then they go on to pressure him further in verse twenty four. They say, then why are you baptizing if you're not the prophet?

If you're not Elijah and you're not the Christ, then then who are you to baptize? Who gave you authority to baptize someone else? And John answered, I baptize with water. But among you stands one you do not know.

Even he who comes after me, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie. Now, when John the Baptist says that he baptized with water, he was he was preparing the people for the coming of Christ.

In Mark chapter one, verse four, it says John appeared baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And the water baptism that he was doing was even in itself kind of a type or a shadow of the baptism that was going to be done in Christ, baptizing with fire and with the Holy Spirit.

Now, there's still the command to be baptized with water. And that's indeed what Jesus told his disciples to do. And his disciples went out doing it. But John the Baptist baptism again, it was preparing the people for the coming of Christ.

It was to it was to cleanse the hearts that they might hear the words that Christ was going to proclaim. So John says, all I'm doing here is I'm baptizing with water. I'm fulfilling something that God told me to do now.

Now about God telling John the Baptist things, we're going to get to that here in just a moment. And you heard it in the reading that we started with here. But he says, I baptize with water among you stand someone you do not know.

Now John will go on to say that he didn't know him either. I'll explain that here in just a moment. But verse twenty seven, even he who comes after me, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.

And these things took place in Bethany across the Jordan where John was baptizing. And as I explained yesterday, that was also the place where Elijah ascended into heaven. So that's one of the reasons why when the when the messengers from the Pharisees came to John the Baptist, they asked him, are you Elijah?

Have you come back having ascended into heaven? Have you now descended to resume what Elijah was doing several hundred years ago? And John the Baptist says, no, I am not him. So he's a fulfillment of a prophecy that there would come a man who was like Elijah.

But John the Baptist is making sure they understand he is not exactly Elijah. He is not the the embodiment of Elijah having returned to earth. Jesus said of himself in John three thirteen, no one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the son of man.

The Lamb of God Who Takes Away the Sin of the World

So going on here with John the Baptist testimony in verse twenty nine, the next day he saw Jesus coming toward him and he said, behold, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Now, even this declaration from John the Baptist is a fulfillment of a prophecy that was made in the book of Isaiah.

It's in Isaiah chapter fifty three verses six and seven where we read all we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way and the Lord has laid on him. Jesus is who he's referring to here, the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth like a lamb that is led to the slaughter and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent. So he opened not his mouth. We are like rebellious sheep, but Jesus is the one spotless lamb that is set aside for the sacrifice even greater than any lamb that has ever been sacrificed.

He is the lamb of God. And John is not the only one who made this connection. Peter uses it to first Peter one, 19, where we have received salvation through the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.

And John the apostle would use this title of Christ being the lamb of God multiple times in the book of Revelation, most especially in the song that is sung by the saints heard in Revelation 7, 10, salvation belongs to our God and unto the lamb.

So once again, John the Baptist pointing to this prophecy concerning the lamb of God, and this is Christ who fulfills it. He takes away the sin of the world by his sacrifice on the cross. We who believe in him are forgiven our sins and we receive the righteousness of God.

John goes on in verse 30 to say, this is he of whom I said after me comes a man who ranks before me because he was before me. So Jesus is coming after him. He's younger than John the Baptist by like six months or something like that.

Remember, these two men are related in in the flesh. They're related as Mary was a cousin of Elizabeth, who was John's mother. And and so Jesus and John the Baptist have some kind of cousin connection.

But John the Baptist was born first. Jesus was born next. John the Baptist preached in the wilderness first. Jesus came proclaiming next, as a matter of fact, in the book of Matthew, they began their ministries with the same words.

John's first words when he was preaching were repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And then in chapter four, verse 17, Jesus begins his ministry the same way. Upon coming out of the wilderness, he says, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

So Jesus comes after John the Baptist. But John is sure to proclaim of him that he is before me. And this is true in a couple of ways. As we've already seen this here in the first chapter of John, Jesus is before John in the sense that Jesus is from the very beginning.

In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. So in that sense, Jesus is truly before John. But he's also before John in this sense, that Jesus is greater than John, that he is the greatest man who ever lived.

And so in this way, John says he is before me. And then he goes on in verse thirty one to say, I myself did not know him. But for this purpose, I came baptizing with water that he might be revealed to Israel.

Now, this statement that John makes that he did not know Jesus is a curious one, because at the baptism of Jesus in Matthew, chapter three, verses 13 through 17. Here's what we read. Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John to be baptized by him.

John would have prevented him saying, I need to be baptized by you. And do you come to me? But Jesus answered him, let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness. And then John consented.

Now, when we read here in the gospel of John, John the Baptist says, I did not know him. That's John one thirty one. Now, all of these things have already taken place. The baptism of Christ has already happened, at least as far as what we're reading here in John one.

So he says of Christ, I didn't know him. But when you go to Matthew chapter three, it's it seems that he did know him because he says, I need to be baptized by you. Now, what John is saying in John one that he did not know is that he did not know Jesus was the Messiah.

He did indeed know that Jesus was a holy man, which is why he said of Christ, you need to be baptizing me. But John did not know Christ's identity as the Messiah until the heavens opened up and he saw the spirit of God descending on him like a dove and coming to rest on him.

So he definitely knew Jesus righteousness, but he did not know that he was the promised Messiah. There were still things about Christ that John didn't know and no one knew, in fact, because it wasn't until after Christ was resurrected that he showed himself to his disciples, even from the scriptures, from the Old Testament, how the Old Testament prophesied about him.

And then when we read in Luke chapter twenty four, how the disciples eyes were opened and they understood the things that Jesus was saying to them about how the scriptures prophesied about him. So there were things about Jesus.

Even John the Baptist didn't know. But Jesus went on to say about John. This is Matthew eleven eleven. Truly I say to you, among those born of women, there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist, yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

In other words, there were going to be things that that people saw that John the Baptist didn't get to see. And there were going to be people who believed because they did not see. And John the Baptist believed because he did see like the dove coming down from heaven, the Holy Spirit resting upon Christ and the voice of the father saying, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.

And that's what John goes on to testify about here in John one verse thirty two. And John bore witness. I saw the spirit descend from heaven like a dove and it remained on him. I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, he on whom you see the spirit descend and remain.

This is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. So this is one of those things that signifies to us John's identity as the final prophet before the coming of Christ. Jesus would go on to say again in Matthew eleven verse twelve, for from the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence and the violent take it by force 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. He who has ears to hear, let him hear now again. Not that he is the embodiment of Elijah, that he's literally Elijah, but he is the fulfillment of that prophecy that was made about him in Malachi chapter four.

And so as a prophet of God, as as the last prophet before the great prophet who is Jesus Christ, God spoke to him just as God spoke to any of the prophets. And here we have this testimony from John that God said to him, he on whom you see the spirit descend and remain.

This is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. And then we'll go on to read later on in Hebrews chapter one, beginning in verse one. Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets.

But in these last days, he has spoken to us by his son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. So John the Baptist was the last one to proclaim as a prophet of God until Jesus Christ, who fulfills all the law and the prophets.

And now what we hear from God today is what Christ spoke or what he said through his apostles. What we have in the Bible, Old Testament and new, is the word of God. So you can stop listening for a voice and start looking for a verse for what God has said in the Bible is the voice of God.

And we need no other voice than this. And John will conclude this section as we conclude this section with verse thirty four. John saying, and I have seen and I have borne witness that this is the son of God.

We'll pick up there tomorrow in verse thirty five. Let's conclude with prayer. Our great God, we thank you for this word that you have given to us, that we might hear your voice through the pages of scripture, that you might speak to us and let us know your ways.

We get to know the mind and the heart of God through what we read in the pages of scripture. And your glory has been given to us and revealed to us in the face of Jesus Christ. And so we ask God that we take what we have read and we apply it and we are shaped more and more into the image of Christ.

Whatever comes our way today, may we give you glory for it, for you are a sovereign God and you are in control of all things. And even these things that happen to us today are to shape us more like Christ, that we might give you glory and honor for all things as you work all things together for good, for those who love God and are called according to your purpose.

Lead us in these things in the joy of Christ, we pray, amen.

This is When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. There are lots of great Bible teaching programs on the web, and we thank you for selecting ours. But this is no replacement for regular fellowship with a church family.

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