The Herald, John the Baptist

John Prepares the Way for Jesus.

Almost 30 years have passed since the birth of Christ in chapter two. John the Baptist, who is the distant cousin of Jesus and the son of Zechariah a priest and his wife Elizabeth, he grew to manhood in the wilderness of Judea, where he received his prophetic call around AD 27, when the Holy Spirit of prophecy came upon him and he rose to notoriety quickly as a preacher calling for national repentance (The New Bible Dictionary, Third Edition)

John is the Herald of the Messiah as prophesied by the Prophet Isaiah in Isaiah Chapter 40:3, NKJV.

The voice of one crying in the wilderness:

‘Prepare the way of the Lord;

Make His paths straight.’ ”

(Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982), Mt 3:3.

John is to prepare the way for the Jesus by preparing others to welcome Him. The people needed to have a spirit of repentance to be shown their need for forgiveness. We can do the same thing today through our telling of the Gospel. When we tell others about Christ and why He came we help them to see their need for forgiveness and their need for the Savior. We demonstrate Christ’s forgiveness and teaching through our everyday lives and we prepare the paths and make them straight for Jesus by correcting misunderstandings of who and what Christ did for us.

John was living out his faith everyday in the way he lived and the way he preached repentance and the coming Messiah. John’s appearance was striking but in a rugged way not a ooolala way.

Verse 4. “Now John himself was clothed in camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist; and his food was locusts and wild honey.”

The New King James Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982), Mt 3:4.

This description of John is why so many people thought he was the Prophet Elijah returned. In 2 Kings 1:8 “So they answered him, “A hairy man wearing a leather belt around his waist.” And he said, “It is Elijah the Tishbite.”” The description of Elijah in 2 Kings matched John’s description. No one alive had seen Elijah and to my knowledge no painting or likeness of him was known, it was too early in time for pictures so the average person didn't know if John was the Prophet or not. John denies it of course but does say in Matthew 3:3 about himself “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.’ ” John is the herald of the Lord, making his paths straight. And many recognized John as a prophet and holy man and came to repent and be baptized for repentance of sin.

Which brings me to my first question; would others who see you or know you, know that you are a man or woman of God? I’m not saying you need to wear furs and eat locusts and wild honey, but does your lifestyle proclaim the Messiah or does it proclaim the worldly? I think the worst thing a Christian can hear when they tell someone they’ve known for awhile that their Christian, is…Really? Your lifestyle and worldview should let people you don’t even know, know that you follow Christ. From the way you dress, talk, act, and live; by what you put first in life, by what you value and how you respond to things that violate your values. All of these things help others know who you are.

3. Verses 7-12 are directed to the Pharisee and Sadducees who come to see John baptizing people in the River Jordan for repentance. They are curious to know who he is per scripture. When John sees them he is enraged and calls them a “brood of vipers” (Mt. 3:7). He continues with an accusative question, “Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” John knows they have not come to be baptized for the repentance of sin and made clean to receive the Messiah…and they had not though come for that. They came to satisfy their curiosity about who John was and whether or not they should get on board with this crazy man’s plan. They choose to get onboard and not to be baptized, because that would weaken their power position and the ordinary man might not revere them in the way they were used to being revered, supported, and obeyed.

Are you here today just so others think you are good, that you are righteous? Or are you here today to let the world know that Christ is your King, your Savior, and your God? John the Baptist wasn’t afraid of what the world thought of him, only what God thought of him. John didn’t mind the discomfort of the camel skins, or the diet of locusts and honey, sleeping in the wilderness, and forsaking all the comforts of man because John had his eye on eternity with God. The short term life on earth was…well short term.

Verse 11, John heralds in the Messiah again Matthew 3:11 “I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” John reminds everyone that he is here for a singular purpose, to baptize for repentance making way for the Messiah, who is mightier than John and John says he is not even worthy to carry the messiah’s sandals. Knowing who the Messiah is and who we are is a first step toward repentance and salvation. Christ is our divine Savior, we can never be worthy of His sacrifice, none of us could ever be worthy to even carry his sandals, yet He comes to baptize us with the Holy Spirit for regeneration and renewal, to salvation. He who is omnipotent (all powerful) emptied himself and was made lower for a time to pay the price for our sins that we may be made holy in the eyes of God. How could we ever be worthy of that…we cant. Yet Christ died for us while we were still sinners.

Our final verse today is a vivid one. Verse 12, Matthew 3:12 “His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” This illustration is very good, and very accurate. First let me tell you about winnowing grain. The first step is beating the heads of grain against a hard surface to loose the grain from the stalk. Once thats done, then the pile of grain and chaff left must be separated. This done by winnowing, you throw the grain and chaff up into the air using a winnowing fan ( a flat wooden scoop or a woven flat fan like scoop) the wind then blows the lighter chaff away from the grain that then falls back down onto the winnowing fan, this is done until all the chaff is removed from the scoop leaving only the grain, and the process is repeated again and agin until finished. When all the grain and chaff have been separated into two piles, the grain is moved into the storehouse and the chaff is burned away as refuse. When Jesus holds judgement He will separate the believers from the unbelievers and the unbelievers will be cast into the fire. Pretty accurate.

The last question is this: Are you the grain or the chaff, the believer or the unbeliever, the saved or the lost?