Jesus In The Gospels: A Fresh Look At The Most Transformational Figure In Human History

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INTRODUCTION

JOHN THE BAPTIST AND TRUE GREATNESS IN GOD’S KINGDOM

We’re about to investigate Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, with the goal of achieving a thoroughly biblical view of Jesus. It’s important that we see the Jesus of the Gospels because there are many views of Jesus in our world today. There’s the pop culture Jesus, the traditional religious understanding of Jesus, and today, there’s a prominent liberal view of Jesus.

But who was Jesus in reality? And who is Jesus today? And what does the Bible teach us about this Man who is the most transformational figure in human history and in all eternity? We must understand who this Man, Jesus, really is.

In this book, we will focus on His key teachings. We’ll look at His private conversations to understand His heart, study His parables, and watch Him interact with the religious leaders of His day. What will emerge from the Gospels will be a wonderfully accurate picture of who Jesus really is.

I have a challenge for you as we begin this exploration. Do your own investigation of the life of Jesus as you regularly read the Gospels. Like the Berean believers in Acts 17, you should search the Scriptures daily for yourself.

Let’s Start With John the Baptist

Let’s begin this series of Gospel snapshots that reveal who Jesus is by focusing on His forerunner, John the Baptist, the man who prepared the way for Jesus’ ministry. John the Baptist lived and died to make Jesus known. Who was he? It’s important first, to recognize that John the Baptist is not the writer of the Gospel of John. That other John is the apostle of Jesus who wrote not just the Gospel of John but three letters in the New Testament (1, 2, and 3 John) and Revelation.

John the Baptist was the son of a temple priest in Jerusalem by the name of Zacharias, and his wife Elizabeth. He was also a distant cousin of Jesus. We don’t know how distant but Luke 2 tells us that John’s mother, Elizabeth, was a cousin to Jesus’ mother, Mary. We don’t know if they were first, second, or third cousins, but however far removed Elizabeth and Mary were, John and Jesus were removed one step further. They may have been second, third, fourth, or even more distant cousins, but John the Baptist was related to Jesus.

Now I need to say that he was called John the Baptist not, obviously, because he was a member of a Baptist church. John predates all of Christianity. He’s called John the Baptist because of what he did. He baptized people and so can also be more accurately termed, John the baptizer. He baptized those who came to him and received his call to repentance by immersing them in the Jordan River, symbolically cleansing and washing their sins away.

It’s crucial to recognize that John’s baptism was very different from the baptism that Christians receive today. What Jesus commanded us to do in baptism is totally different from what John did. Our baptism is a baptism which symbolizes our death to sin and our resurrection to a new life in Christ. It’s a baptism in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. John’s baptism was a ceremonial cleansing that followed a person’s repentance to prepare to receive the Lord.

John was a Jew and all Jewish men were accustomed to this kind of baptism. In fact, every Jewish man that came to the Temple would have to immerse himself in the waters of a mikveh. A mikveh was what we would call a baptistery; it was a pool of water in which a Jewish man would immerse himself, ceremonially cleansing himself.

Many believe that, prior to his ministry of calling Israel to repentance, John the Baptist was a member of a group called the Essenes, a Jewish sect that lived near the Dead Sea in Qumran. I’ve been to Qumran numerous times and there are many mikva’ot there. It would have been very normal in first century Jewish life to say that if you want to be pure before God, you must be baptized. So John preached, people responded, and he immersed them in the waters of baptism. Thus he is called John the Baptist, for John the baptizer.

John Fulfilled Old Testament Prophecy

The genesis of John the Baptist’s life and ministry is found in Luke 1 where the angel Gabriel appears to Zacharias and tells him that his wife, Elizabeth, is going to have a baby who will be named John.

But the angel said to him, ‘Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your prayer is heard; and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth. For he will be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink. He will also be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb. And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God’ (Luke 1:13-16).

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if it could be said of you that you would be so consecrated to the Lord, so empowered by the Holy Spirit, that many people would be turned to the Lord as a result of your life? That’s why God has you on this earth. And this is how I am praying that we will emulate the life of John the Baptist. My prayer is that through your influence, your consecration, and your surrender to the Holy Spirit, many people will turn to the Lord.

Gabriel continues by telling Zacharias, He will also go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, ‘to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children,’ and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord (Luke 1:17). Gabriel is directly quoting from Malachi, the last prophet of the Old Testament who declared: Behold, I send My messenger, and he will prepare the way before Me (Malachi 3:1). So what will that messenger be like? Malachi enlarges our understanding in the next chapter: Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse (Malachi 4:5-6).

Those words from Malachi are repeated in Luke 1 as Gabriel announces to Zacharias that his son is going to come like Elijah and will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and vice versa. He’s going to begin to soften hearts and prepare the way of the Lord. Malachi prophesies that before the Messiah comes, this messenger from the Lord will come like Elijah. And then the angel tells Zacharias that his son, John, would be that prophet.

The prophet Isaiah also says a prophet will precede the Messiah and describes what he will be like: The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God (Isaiah 40:3). Matthew applies this prophecy to John the Baptist in the New Testament:

In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!’ For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying:

"The voice of one crying in the wilderness: 

‘Prepare the way of the Lord;

 Make His paths straight’ (Matthew 3:1-3).

Matthew says that John is the prophet promised in the Old Testament. Gabriel says that John is the fulfillment of Malachi’s prophecy. Now let me show you something incredibly important from Matthew 17, an account of Christ’s Transfiguration—the event in which Christ took Peter, James and John up on a mountain and revealed to them His heavenly glory. His face and clothing turned bright like the sun, and they knew in that moment, if they’d never known it before, that Jesus is the Messiah; He is the Son of God.

But they still had a question for Jesus based on the Old Testament prophets. Why, they asked Him, do the scribes say that Elijah must come first? (Matthew 17:10). Wait a minute, they’re saying, if you’re really the Messiah, then the prophets of the Old Testament said that before you came, Elijah the prophet would come and prepare your way.

Jesus told them, in response, Indeed, Elijah is coming first and will restore all things. But I say to you that Elijah has come already, and they did not know him but did to him whatever they wished. Likewise the Son of Man is also about to suffer at their hands (Matthew 17:11-12). And at that point, Matthew tells us, the disciples understood that He spoke to them of John the Baptist (Matthew 17:13).

So Gabriel told John’s dad that He will be the prophet Elijah that is to come. Matthew declared that he is the fulfillment of the prophecies of Malachi and Isaiah. And Jesus said John the Baptist is the fulfillment of the prophecy of the Elijah to come. But John the Baptist, himself, denies that he is the fulfillment of the promised prophet:

And they asked him, ‘What then? Are you Elijah?’ He said, ‘I am not.’ ‘Are you the Prophet?’ [The prophet that is to come before the Messiah] And he answered, ‘No.’ (John 1:21)

So why would he say that? Why, if the angel Gabriel, the writer of Matthew, and Jesus Himself all said that John is the fulfillment of Elijah, the prophet to come, does John the Baptist say he is not that prophet? It might help your understanding of what John the Baptist meant, if you insert after John’s No, these words, not to you. That’s really the crux of the matter. The Jews would in fact reject his message, therefore he would not be able to prepare their hearts.

We must understand that if we are to receive the Messiah we cannot reject His message. The Bible says that God chose, through the foolishness of preaching, to save them that believe, but the Jews rejected the message, therefore he was not able to be Elijah to them. In fact, Jesus reiterates this when He says, speaking of John the Baptist, if you are willing to receive it, he is Elijah who is to come (Matthew 11:14). Do you see the condition? If you will receive it, then he will be Elijah for you. I simply want to say, don’t reject the message of the Gospel, don’t push back the messenger, don’t push back the Gospel. The way to have Christ is to receive the message of the Gospel.

Why Did Jesus Say John Was the Greatest?

It’s interesting that Jesus also says of John, in Matthew 11:11, Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist. What was it about John that so impressed Jesus, that caused Him to say, in effect, It doesn’t get any better than this. We find answers in the first chapter of the Gospel of John:

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.

 This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. (John 1:6-8)

Now this is the testimony of John, 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?

He said, I am not.

Are you the Prophet?

And he answered, No.

Then they said to him, Who are you, that we may give an answer to those who sent us? What do you say about yourself ?

He said: I am ‘The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as the prophet Isaiah said.

Now those who were sent were from the Pharisees. And they asked him, saying, Why then do you baptize if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet? John answered them, saying, I baptize with water, but there stands One among you whom you do not know. It is He who, coming after me, is preferred before me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose. These things were done in Bethabara beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing. (John 1:19-28)

What was it about John’s life that made Jesus say, Among those born of women there is no greater than John? This passage tells us, I believe, that John the Baptist was great because he understood his role and purpose in the world. There can be little doubt that John grew up knowing the story of the angel Gabriel coming to the Temple and telling his dad, Zacharias, that he was going to be born. His parents undoubtedly told him that he would be the prophet to precede the Messiah and that Gabriel had said he would be the one that would come to make ready a people prepared for the Lord (Luke 1:17).

I like to think that when young John misbehaved, his mother would say, That’s no way for the prophet to act—don’t mess up your ministry! God has called you to something great. He grew up knowing all this and, in fact, the Bible says that when he became an adult he went into the desert, presumably to seek God and to seek the purpose that God had for him. And there in the desert God met with him, as John the Baptist testified:

"I did not know Him, but He who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘Upon whom you see the