John Baptist

Transcript

so you know the question that we can ask is why you know why should we even look at john the baptist why is he important well obviously he was uh he's mentioned in scripture um

and he we are told that he paved the way for the messiah the or the savior and um

he was a precursor or a forerunner to christ and in fact a lot of the scribes and the pharisees uh asked him if he was the messiah and he always deferred to christ in other words you know he had this tremendous mission that was in front of him to prepare you know the way of the lord

uh but he was very humble in what he did even though he was a powerful prophet and even though you know he he spoke you know to uh the scribes and pharisees the religious leaders even spoke to kings um you know he had no fear because he knew god was with him uh and he took his role seriously you know he didn't he didn't just do it halfway he did it fully to begin to bind the children of israel's heart back to their god and it was a major undertaking because the children of israel uh they were struggling they were struggling with their relationship with god you know a lot of the um you know the kings and the other political leaders during this time were really you know trying to you know gain more political power more wealth the people were um you know not being taken care of the way that they should have you know a lot of the same things that the prophets were concerned about in the old testament that god was concerned about in the old testament well a lot of those same things were going on were they worshiping other gods no they weren't they were worshiping yahweh and they had the temple but that whole set up now opened up a lot of doors for you know other issues as well where you're just centering on the you know on the temple itself but forgetting about the righteousness of god forgetting about the love of god and this is one of the big things that john the baptist really had a problem with um and christ is going to pick up on that as well so um you know let's let's think about you know we could start with luke chapter one and we're gonna take a look at luke luke chapter one but um you know two of the four gospels in mark and also in matthew describe uh john the baptist somewhat so you know i always like to have a um you know a picture in my mind and obviously no one was there with john the baptist but i think we can get a little uh you know a little glimpse into what maybe you know john the baptist was like so let's take a look first at matthew the third chapter

and um you know well verse 3 for this is he that was spoken of by the prophet isaiah saying the voice of one crying in the wilderness prepare ye the way of the lord make his path straight and the same john had his raiment of camels here and a learning girdle about his loins and his meat was locus in wild honey so you know he was not um

you know he he certainly wasn't dressed in the in the best you know greek fashion uh of that time a roman fashion of that time you know he lived he lived outside primarily he lived a very hard life and so you know his mind really was focused on the things of god his mind was focused on um the things of the gospel being that forerunner preparing

the children of israel uh for

for the appearance of christ and so you know that's i think there's a lesson in that brothers and sisters you know what you know we have a lot of distractions in our lives john didn't have a whole lot of distractions he had simplified his life

uh to a pretty serious degree right i mean we're we're not all walking around with uh you know camels here and we're not eating wild honey you know we have the opposite problem in this day and age you know we have access to almost anything almost instantaneous you know i've said this before you know we can hold in our hand all of uh humanity's information in the literally in the palm of our hand you know and so our lives can be extremely hectic you know i was kind of you know i was it was pretty hectic today for me um you know i think we all had hectic days where we're just busy and it's not like we're doing anything extra or anything like that you know we're just doing the stuff we need to do um you know john i don't think was very stressed about uh certain things of this life so there's got to be a balance there and john the baptist chose a path it was a path of simplicity and it was a path of dedication to god in taking his role seriously he knew from a ver the very beginning as a child that he had a special job to do when he took it seriously and so that's the question for us right are we taking our calling seriously

are we serious about uh living the gospel in our lives about preaching the gospel to people um you know about being loving and kind and merciful and you know all those christ-like attributes that we struggle with you know are we doing that in our lives are we just kind of mealing it in you know john the baptist was not a guy that mailed it in ever you know he was he had he cranked it up to 11 at all times and most likely brothers and sisters is what got him killed right he didn't sugarcoat anything when he was talking to uh you know to herod so it's just it's interesting there's a little picture right there you know a lot of different artists um you know you know uh you know give him a different appearance but it's all it's relatively same but in uh matthew the third chapter we'll look at this as well real quick um

because he you know he's mentioned in matthew obviously as well in the third chapter verse four

um

you know very similar uh

you know verses right the voice of one crying in the wilderness verse three

and the same john

um

that did we do yeah we just did matthew come on what's going on people

uh and did we do matthew or mark anyways they're very similar let's not look at both of them but um you know the raymond of camels here uh wild honey locust you know he's eating he's literally eating bugs

uh in bugs and honey right uh so not uh you know a very um

you know very smart in life for sure not very comfortable and christ picks up on that right

you know the they that you know they that uh dressed sumptuously they're in um they're in the palaces you know they're in they're in the palaces of uh of the rich

all right so we we already looked at this locus and wild honey that was his that's what he ate uh and he really was wearing the bare bones of things as well and so he was a forerunner or a precursor someone who runs before another who announces the arrival of someone else and obviously in john the baptist case we know he was preparing the way he was preparing his ministry um was to prepare the way for christ to come

all right and so all he's mentioned in all four gospels as well um

you know the voice of one crying in the wilderness that's used in matthew that's used in mark it's used in luke as well and it's also uh used as um

in john that first chapter uh in verse 23. let's take a look at that

in john

this first chapter in verse 23 and he said i am the voice of one crying in the wilderness make straight the way of the lord as said the prophet isaiah and they which were sent were of the pharisees and they asked him and said unto him why do you baptize if thou be not the christ or elias neither that prophet john answered them saying i baptize with water but there standeth one among you whom ye know not he it is who cometh after me is preferred before me whose shoes latch and i am not worthy to one loose you know so um

you know the john the baptist was outside of jerusalem right jerusalem is the political and religious center of the israelites during this time um and so well it is the you know now as well so they don't they sent you know the religious leaders sent the delegation down to john he was down in the valley in the jordan valley baptizing they send a delegation from jerusalem

right and so you know we may look at this as kind of you know kind of being somewhat humorous right that the scribes and pharisees are sending a delegation down to john but this was serious business

right things concerning the law are the torah uh in jewish tradition was serious and the chil the children of israel and the scribes and pharisees remember they had done away with all of their polytheism right the worshipping of the other gods that wasn't an issue now um but there was also this internal struggle about the direction of the nation and we we did a little study on that i think uh maybe last year or a year before you know all the different characters that jesus interacted with describes the pharisees the sadducees um the samaritans you know all of these sit you know the sinners the publicans and so john the baptist is going to interact with all these people as well and he has this tremendous following and word gets back to the temple leadership and so they send a delegation down and they ask him point blank

who what though who are you right um

and he said straight away he said i'm not the christ i'm not the messiah but there's someone that's going to come after me who is so much better than me that john says that i'm not even worthy to untie his sandal

right do we think about that like you can see john just uh debasing himself or subjugating himself to christ

um because he knew that he was the was the messiah

um so you know all four gospels show that john the baptist is is an additional evidence a confirmation of the better or superior work of christ and so this was one of the things that the scribes and pharisees were doing um and it was based upon the law in the 17th chapter of deuteronomy just take a look at that in the 17th chapter

um in verse 6 at the mouth of two witnesses or three witnesses shall he that is worthy of death be put to death but at the mouth of one witness he shall not be put to death the hands of the witnesses shall be upon him so on and so forth and so we're talking about establishing the truth of the matter by two or three witnesses and i think this is one of the purpose um of sending down this delegation uh to um to john that first john is talking about you know they sent this delegation to establish the truth about john the baptist you know who who was he what was he preaching about you know what was what was his his role in all of this right and in verse 19 um when the jews sent priests and levites from jerusalem and so this was a big deal you know you had this uh you know this prophet who you know what brothers and sisters i bet a lot of these priests and these levites that were sent to john they might have known john as a child

remember john grew up in a priestly home uh his father zechariah and his mother elizabeth they were they were levites and in actuality as luke the first chapter tells us um

zechariah was in the process of serving within the temple when he saw the angel

and this is the first time

that we have recorded for us for over 400 years of face-to-face uh interaction um between a messenger of god

and a human being in israel right and it's going to be zechariah who was an old man

uh who and his wife was old too and they were desperate for a child you know you can think about you know maybe the uh the burden of carrying that right they desperately wanted a child here they were they were old and you know even zechariah questioned the angel like you know uh you know i'm old my wife's old right um so anyway say i want to go down the rabbit hole of that but that was you know they were trying to establish whether or not john was a prophet or not okay um and this is what we're talking about

you know they wanted to know if john the baptist was he the one was he god's anointed messiah

and in uh john that 19th chapter right with 19th first that's what we are um they asked him in verse 21 what then i tell elijah and he said i am not thou on another prophet he said i'm not who art thou he says and this is when you know this is when john says i am the voice of one crying in the wilderness right so he goes right back to isaiah

uh to give himself a label right i'm i'm just a voice

of one crying in the wilderness you know uh make straight the way of the lord

that's all he was doing that was his job and he was focused on that you know and i think you know it's it's hard brothers and sisters you know to compare ourselves to these great people uh in scripture right uh and john the baptist is one of those guys where he was just committed he was just committed to his role as being the forerunner and it's also interested in me interesting to me anyways is um

you know they both had different tactics

i'm talking about jesus and uh and john the baptist right they both had the gospel obviously christ was uh the messiah but look at how they you know they dealt with things you know um john the baptist didn't have a lot of interaction right he was in the wilderness a lot of times

people came to him to be baptized so he lived a solitary life for the most part you know there are some biblical scholars that say he may have been um associated with the aseans right who lived out in the desert areas and this is where um thanks to the aseans we have uh the dead sea scrolls right they were they were a group that loved you know love the scripture was john the baptist in the sea and maybe it's possible you know but um yeah anyway so they you know they they would have they would have recognized you on maybe you know they would have remembered him as a kid they would have known their his parents and you know and they're so they're asking this question you know what's what's your deal he says i'm just a voice in the wilderness right he's not i'm not the messiah i'm really nothing i can't the guy that's coming after me i can't even take his sandals off right so that's how much greater he is all right um you know we took we already discussed that as well in luke um in luke 5 3 15 and then in mark 7 we'll take a look at this

in mark seven in the first uh in the first chapter here

in um

mark one verse seven uh yeah what did i say i said something

uh yeah so mark 1 verse 7 and preach saying again there one there cometh one mightier than i after me the latchette of whose shoes i am not i am not worthy to stoop down

and unloose you know think about the words he's usually using in the in the imagery you know he wasn't he wasn't worthy at all to even take off you know christ's um

you know christ dirty sandals so to speak right

um

yeah so he's you know so john the baptist he's not only announcing jesus's superiority but he's also um he's showing it physically through public baptism right so that he did he baptized with water john the baptist baptized with water but you know god is going to say that he's you know that christ is going to um

baptize with the holy spirit and we know that this is this happens as well um well in mark in mark 9 through 9 through 11 we're in mark right and it came to pass in those days that jesus came from nazareth of galilee and was baptized of john in jordan and straightway cometh out of the water he saw the heavens opened and the spirit like a dove descending upon him and there came a voice from heaven saying thou art my beloved son in whom i am well pleased right and so christ comes out of the waters of baptism and god tells everyone around them that this is his son i'm what he's well pleased i love him very much

and we know that in acts as well after the death and resurrection the ascension to heaven that the holy spirit on the day of pentecost is gonna come down on um on the believers as well so there's a foreshadowing of that event um

so yes although you know the holy spirit descending not only on christ as a dove but again that is going to happen to his uh his followers on the day of pentecost you know i always um i always ask this question i don't really have an answer for it but it's just kind of one of these interesting biblical questions you know why

was the holy spirit you know when the holy spirit descended upon christ why was it in the form of a dove

you know why not like the form of a lion or something you know more powerful right it was it was uh you know in the day of pentecost it was like flames of fire right which okay that's interesting well why you dove with christ you know maybe that's something we can uh we can think about you know and i don't know if there's a right or wrong answer to it but you know came down like a dove maybe it was just the shape of it that you know that people saw i don't know but anyways

um so let's take a look at the parallels just uh you know briefly here um let's take a look at the parallels between the birth of john and the birth of jesus so we know from uh the account in luke the second chapter first and second chapters that an angel is going to visit zechariah as we talked about but in a the angel gabriel is also going to visit mary you know afterward and they both have to do with an announcement of the birth of special sons with john the baptist well let's

let's take a look what is mentioned

of john the baptist in the first um excuse me in the first chapter of luke

um

[Music]

yeah um

in verse 13 yeah so yeah in um verse 10 and the whole multitude of the people were praying without at the time of incense

and there appeared unto him an angel of the lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense and when zechariah saw him he was troubled and fear fell upon him you know that's like an understatement you know you're in there you're doing the you know you're performing the duties of uh of the temple with the incense so on and so forth it was his time you know it was on a rotating schedule and it was his month and he was doing all of the duties in there and so it's interesting you know zechariah was in the process of um you know he wasn't worshiping but he was performing a service within the temple he was actively working when the angel uh when the angel came to him i don't know if there's any significance in that but he was a righteous individual luke tells us that him and his wife were uh what does it say about them um

yeah they were both verse six and they were both righteous before god walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the lord blameless

right these were good people brothers and sisters they were righteous people and even though they had been incredibly disappointed with the lack of an ear or lack of her son or daughter uh you know here's zachariah is still performing his duties

you know this just this this older couple you know they're they're growing old together uh you know there's some sadness there i'm sure there's you know who knows the range of emotion but they they loved each other and they both loved god as well and i think there's a lot of uh you know there's a lot of good food for thought in in that relationship you know they've never lost their faith even though you know at this time of their lives i'm sure they were disappointed

uh they were disappointed that they that they couldn't have children you know and there's a lot of cases like that you know i you know in the account in genesis with jacob and rachel right rachel was so exasperated by it that he you know she kind of yells at jacob and said give me give me children i'm gonna die she says uh you wonder you know if that was maybe the mentality with elizabeth too like you know i don't know i'm just kind of thinking outside but anyways the angel comes he's fearful um you know you know you turn to the right he's doing the incense he looks over to the right and boom there's there's gabriel you know so you can understand the fear that he would have

in verse 13 don't be fearful gabriel says for thy prayer is heard and thy wife elizabeth shall bear thee your son and now shall call his name john so you know there's a couple things there number one don't be fearful i'm bringing you good news right so there's an angel again bringing good news of hope it is the beginning

of the salvation of the of the children of israel first of the seed of abraham but also the salvation of all mankind first through the forerunner of john and then through

the messiah as well and so there's that little a little short little uh sentence right

for thy your prayer

is heard

um

you know that's uh i think it's a very powerful uh sentence there your prayer is heard and you know how many prayers you think zachariah and elizabeth had made

you know about uh that you know about elizabeth's being barren how many prayers you think they said

and it had there was no response

uh to god you know maybe the thousands of prayers i bet brothers and sisters they had made to god thousands of them

uh and they kept doing it over and over and over again and they waited their patience of these people and the love and the commitment of zechariah and elizabeth you know you can understand why they were chosen to be the forerunner of the messiah uh and here's you know his his gabriel saying don't be afraid god has heard your prayers

um

and i think sometimes in our lives you know we're we're desperate for those words don't be fearful

i've heard your prayer

uh and maybe it's not as direct as that you know we don't have

the angel gabriel gabriel you know uh appearing to us on our right hand side

um

but god hears our prayers and you know and sometimes we don't understand you know why he's not acting right away or doesn't act um and maybe zechariah and elizabeth were asking you know the little seeds of doubt you know why why isn't god heard our prayer but he had heard their prayer

they just didn't know it yet right and so now it is revealed to them the true plan of plan of god you know that they these two righteous individuals were going to glorify god

um by being the parents of the the forerunner of of christ um

and so

you know first of all you're going to bear a son call his name john in verse 13 verse 14 let's take a look at this rigorous time you know okay and thou shalt have joy

in gladness

and many shall rejoice at his birth what wonderful words right the gabriel is is speaking here you're going to have joy

and gladness that was that's what that's what the message was that uh gabriel was bringing from god we're gonna have joy and gladness and many

shall rejoice

at his birth

um and so you know on a very personal level did zechariah and elizabeth have joy and gladness of course it was a wonderful time did their close relatives and their family did they rejoice with elizabeth and with the zechariah at the birth of john of course we're told that um

but on a big and a macro level right on a big picture level uh the bert like i said you know the birth of john was the beginning of the salvation of mankind right he was the forerunner he was that voice

in the wilderness preparing the way for christ and ultimately brothers and sisters you know even though we struggle now and even though we have our weaknesses and our hang-ups and we're weak in a lot of different ways and we miss the mark all the time

um

you know we have been promised joy

we have been promised gladness we have been promised that many will rejoice

uh and we're looking for that day not for the birth of john enough for the birth of the messiah we know those things have happened but we look for the joy and the gladness that that kingdom uh is going to bring that kingdom that christ is going to bring with him and so like zechariah and like elizabeth we can never lose hope

we can't lose hope in that joy and gladness that is uh that is to come um so i think that's that's it's really powerful it's a really powerful lesson um and so let's take a look what type of individual was john gonna be well gabriel tells us right for he shall be great in the sight of the lord and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink and he shall be filled with the holy spirit even from his mother's womb and many of the children of israel shall he turn to the lord their god and he shall go before him in the spirit and the 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 you know while there's there's a lot in those verses

but that's the type of individual he was going to be great in the sight of the lord right and he was going to drink neither wine nor strong drink now now there's an echo right brothers and sisters back to um the uh the vow of the nazarite uh when that uh that that is found in um in in the law right uh and the most famous net you know nazareth he took the vow of nazarene was um

was samson

and so it's always good to me like do a like a character comparison he has both a you know he's both individuals right one uh takes a vow of complete dedication to god keeping himself from you know all you know from wickedness

so we have samson on one hand

and we have john the baptist on the other right both you know strong drink and wine they keep themselves away from that they focus their their lives on god but you know we're told that samson had this weakness incredible weakness for women for other women and it was ultimately his downfall you know john what was john's downfall

uh

speaking the truth

speaking the truth to a king right john was never he was never going to shut up he wasn't one of these guys where you know okay yeah that's all i'm going to say you know he had no fear and that was when when gabriel talks about this what does he say there about elijah he says uh in the spirit and power of elijah think about all those confrontations that elijah had with ahab right it is you and your family's house who troubles israel elijah you know he reeled at uh ahab

um you know he's confronting

uh elijah is confronting all all of the prophets of baal on mount carmel right it's just elijah against these people against israel how long he says are you going to halt between two two opinions between two gods how long are you gonna do it and it's very similar to what john is is saying right the time has come to repent

john says because the messiah is coming

um and so there's you know you can do you can make a lot of uh you know a lot of comparisons obviously between john and elijah um but he's tr also here's the i think this is the biggest one like this is going to be big the big one big one of his character characteristics right 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 so again on a very small micro level that's exactly what happened with john when he was sent to the children of israel to baptize and to preach he turned a lot of sinners to god he prepared the children of israel for the coming of the messiah

um you know then that's that's what he he began the process right of making ready a people

prepared for the lord

and so that's a good question for us i think brothers and sisters

are we living up to our calling right are we part of the people that uh that are prepared for the lord

we take it seriously that we have been called that we have been bought with a price

that many righteous individuals like john have come before and literally have laid their lives on the line

to preach the gospel of the kingdom of god and so what do you know what are we doing in our lives you know it's very hard to compare ourselves to john the baptist right i don't think we can compare ourselves to john the baptist but what we can do is we can compare ourselves to his characteristics

he was he was someone that was always uh working he had a lot of energy um

yeah there's a lot of great characteristics um that we can emulate and um

you know those those verses right there you know we can emulate those things

right we can turn the hearts of the fathers to the children we can do that by our preaching hopefully by our actions by being peacemakers

um we can do all of those things we can we can help to turn the disobedient back to the ways of god we can help to prepare a people for god you know he's still calling out a people for his name we're told that

uh and so those are some some interesting and so i think some important um important things about john um and so zechariah he says you know whereby shall i know this he says in verse 18 for i'm an old man

and my wife is well stricken in years

um

and so because of that you know because of that little uh

you know a little doubt that zechariah expresses

right he he was

mute he was mute of uh for the whole uh you know as uh as john grew in the womb and he was mute until his birth and look at the things that he says um

you know he comes out he saw that he saw um you know gabriel there and um [Music] yeah in verse 64 after the burden well before that you have elizabeth and mary coming together and we have this great event

um

where uh

john

is going to leak

in her womb right in verse 41 and it came to pass that when elizabeth heard the salutation of mary john

leaped in her womb

and elizabeth was filled with the holy spirit right for verse 44 for lo as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in mine ears

the babe leaped in my womb

for joy

right that brings us back um to verse 14 with what gabriel had said to zechariah and thou shalt have joy and gladness

and so here's john as a you know uh as a as a baby growing in his mother's womb has joy and he leaps within the womb right and he has elizabeth she has joy because she knows that her cousin uh you know mary is going to give birth to the savior of mankind to the christ

uh in the beginning of the redemption of the people of israel

all right um so that's one thing we have the wonderful prayer of salvation by mary we're not going to look at that now but they stay together for a little bit um

verse 64 john is going to be born and finally uh zechariah can speak again

verse 67 and his father zechariah was filled with the holy spirit right so we have john baptizing

uh with water right but we have the holy spirit now coming upon these people these righteous individuals um

the holy spirit was on john the baptist from his conception

elizabeth gets you know the holy spirit comes upon elizabeth and she prophesies and now the holy spirit is coming down on uh on on zechariah as well he's filled with the holy spirit right the outpouring

of god's power to his people to these righteous individuals um and so he's filled with the holy spirit and he starts uh he starts prophesying he says blessed be the lord god of israel

uh for he hath visited and redeemed his people and he had raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant david verse 72 to perform the mercy promise to our fathers to remember his holy covenant right so he goes on and on now now let's take a look at uh verse 76 because he's he's talking about his son now you know he's he has his son and he now he's talking to his son um

you know that's that's gonna be a pretty powerful moment for him right even just you know for those those of us that are parents or grandparents whatever it is you know think about the time the first time you held your your children right and your arms how uh

you know magical it was how powerful it was you have this just almost indescribable feelings of

joy

right love contentment you know looking at this other this little tiny human being that kind of looks like you

uh you know uh it's it's like wonderful and so here is you can just see it right zachariah is speaking now he has the child and he says and now child in verse 76 you are going to be called the prophet of the highest for thou shalt go before the face of the lord to prepare his ways

to give knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins through the tender mercy of our god

whereby the day spring on high hath visited us

to give light to them that sit in darkness and the shadow of death

to guide our feet into the way

of peace uh and then verse 80 is kind of like uh you know the the ending of that and the child grew and lacked strong in spirit

and was in the deserts

the day of his showing unto israel so there's a lot to unpack there but let's just take a look at what you know uh zechariah being filled with the holy spirit and he's got his son in his arms and he's prophesying

and um

you know so again we talked about characteristics of john and this is his dad kind of you know prophesying about what type of individual john was going to be what are some of the characteristics well he's going to be called the highest the prophet of the highest okay that's pretty good thou shall go before the face of the lord to do what to prepare his ways to give knowledge of salvation that's preaching of the gospel the remission of sins

talking about the tender mercies of god

so can we be like john the baptist you know are we going to be in the wilderness and you know from a very very young age filled with the holy spirit no we're not but um you know there's a lot of things here that zechariah is telling us about his son about what his son was going to do later on in life that are characteristics that we can emulate brothers and sisters we can do these things we have those powers

we can prepare you know we can prepare uh the way of reward

we should be preparing the way of the lord we know we should when whenever every we go we should be preparing

for the day of the lord and i you know how are we acting to people that don't know the gospel you know are we a good ambassador because in a lot of ways john the baptist was an ambassador of christ he came before

uh he emulated christ in the way that he acted are we doing those things

uh preaching the gospel we preach about the knowledge of salvation to people do we talk about the remission of sins do we talk about the tender mercies of god

um you know to give light to them that sit in darkness that's another that's that that's taken from isaiah too uh

i want to say isaiah 62 you know talks about that or 58 or something but it talks about the people that sat in darkness have seen a great light

and this was uh you know this this was the job of of john and his father knew that he's kind of foreshadowing or giving us some information a little taste about the type of individual um that john was going to be and so i think that you know

luke chapter 1 um

it's it's a beautiful chapter it's a very long chapter it contains a lot of information but it's beautiful it's one of my favorite uh chapters of scripture because you know we have the gospel message right here you know we have the beginning of the salvation of the redemption of the children of israel and redemption of the world

and this great responsibility that john was given to prepare the way for the messiah could we do it could we have done what john did are we doing it right now are we preparing the way

right oh you know because john never you know he wasn't a shrinking violin um yeah i want to find that because he talks um i sure should have probably wrote this down hey if someone can find um you know find find where uh jesus is talking to the scribes and pharisees what went you out to the wilderness to see a reed shaking in the wind

uh who someone tell me where that is please let me i want to find that we got a crew working on it here okay yeah

you keep going

um john by the people right john's ministry he's immediately perceived as a prophet to israel you know because number one he's got the he's got the holy spirit number two he was brought up in a priestly home okay zechariah knew the law he knew how to be a priest he knew it inside and out and he obviously is going to pass this on to john the baptist as well so he's growing up in a great home a spiritual home by two righteous individuals john was their pride and joy right and then it sounds like once he became old you know he he had you know he understood the job and he he went into the wilderness right

um so yes all right sandy and jason thank you for that um matthew 11 7. let's take a look at it matthew 11 7. uh all right okay

all right now this yeah okay so let's end with this we're gonna end with this um

so john you know john had been cast into prison right and eventually he's gonna die because he spoke out against the adultery uh herod uh was was committing with herodias uh his brother his brother philip's wife right and that whole sordid thing you know the mother passing on this her jealousy and sickness to the daughter she's dancing seductively herod's being a sicko you know the whole thing is gross and then unfortunately john the baptist is going to uh you know lose his head over because he spoke out against the wickedness that he saw right and so here's verse 2 and when john had heard in the prison

the works of christ

he sent two of his disciples and he said unto him are thou he that should come

or do we look for another now what in the world is going on here

right john the baptist is asking he sends two of his disciples right so we know that john the baptist had disciples just like jesus is going to have disciples so he had a whole ministry but he's going to be cast into prison and he asked this question

uh uh

are you that we're looking for do we look for another

you know this is john who in luke right when he started matthew and mark he's saying uh you know there's someone before he's baptized christ he's seen christ come out of the waters of baptist he's seen the holy spirit descending upon his head like a dove

but i think brothers and sisters you know g you know john was at a pretty low point wasn't he he was in prison you know just being in an ancient prison he can't even really describe

how bad that was and he was pretty low mentally i think he was probably just you know you know he is here's a guy too that's used to being outside

that's used to going in the desert you know walking miles and miles

eating honey locusts

traveling

incredible amounts of personal freedom

and now here he is stuck in a prison

you know think about that mindset right and so yeah

it's like he wants some encouragement he wants some hope i'm stuck in this prison are you are you really the christ john says

you know and jesus jesus's response to this is really wonderful because he doesn't come on and say yeah of course i am john what do you know what's the problem

go he says in verse 4 and show john again those things which he hear and see

the blind received their sight

and the lame walk the lepers are cleansed and deaf here and the dead are raised up

in the poor

have the gospel preached to them

yes john i am the one i am the messiah these are the things that your disciples see

and they hear i am the messiah i am the one look at the things that i'm doing

and so you know i wonder what john's response was i'm sure it gave him hope you know it kind of uh you know brought joy

the limited amount of joy i guess to him you know did he rejoice at these things we're not really told but here in verse seven we're gonna end with this right and they and as they departed

jesus began to say unto the multitudes concerning john

what went ye out into the wilderness to see

a reed shaking with the wind did you go over the desert to see some kind of wishy-washy guy

that can go with the flow just

wherever the wind blows he's going right did you go out and see did you expect john to be that the answer of course is no

but what went he out to see

a man clothed in soft raiment

behold they that wear soft clothing are in king's houses

john wasn't in king's houses in fact the time that he went into a king's house to speak up against herod he got tossed in jail and ended up losing his head that wasn't his scene

he was out with the people he was baptizing

he was preparing the way of god preparing the way for the messiah

but what would yell for to see

a prophet

yes

i say unto you and more than a prophet for this is he of whom it is written behold

i send my messenger before thy face

which shall prepare thy way

before thee

and so that was john's mission

that was his one you know mission in life was to prepare the way and so we have a mission in life as well brothers and sisters we have one mission in life

that has to live the gospel message to be a brother or sister of christ to be part of that righteous spiritual family uh to support each other to love each other to be there in the good times and the bad um [Music]

and to bring joy ultimately uh to all mankind and hopefully in that kingdom to come brothers and sisters we'll all be part of it we'll all have special jobs to do just like john had a special job to do um

so yeah so think on those things thank you