The Ministry of John the Baptist – Acts 19:1-7

Years ago, while I was still in Calgary, I had a pastor-friend who I was trying to encourage in Baptist doctrine.

We heard about a Baptist church over British Columbia’s Okanagan valley which was having a fellowship meeting, and my friend said that he would like to go.

I don’t remember why, but I was not able to attend,

But that man took his wife and family and drove 300 miles or so over to that conference.

When he came back, my friend was not just a little displeased.

He told me that he went hoping to hear messages which lifted up the Lord Jesus Christ.

He said that all he heard were sermons about John the Baptist, John the Baptist.

I’m sure that was an exaggeration, but I do know that quite often in meetings like that, themes develop and several messages relate to one another.

It could have been that there were a couple messages on John the Baptist, and in the course of other messages, that name came up.

I thought of that when I chose the title for this morning’s message: “The Ministry of John the Baptist.”

Someone might be thinking that this is an inappropriate theme for a Sunday morning worship service.

He might be thinking that we should have a message that uplifts and magnifies the Saviour.

We should have a gospel message, not some Biblical biography;

Especially in the light of the fact that last Sunday afternoon we already had a lesson on John’s baptism.

But I am hoping that in another thirty or forty minutes you’ll see that a proper examination of the ministry of John the Baptist does magnify the Lord Jesus.

And I hope that one day, when you look back on my ministry, that you might say that David Oldfield lifted up Christ Jesus, even though he tried to preach the whole counsel of God.

As we have already seen, a young preacher from Alexandria, Egypt came to Ephesus, Asia preaching Christ.

The Bible says that he was an “eloquent man and mighty in the scriptures.”

He was instructed in the way of the Lord and fervent in spirit, speaking and teaching the things of the Lord.

But, he knew only the baptism of John.

In fact, his ministry was probably not much different from the ministry that John had back on the banks of the Jordan river about twenty years earlier.

Even though some older Christians took this young man and expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly, they did not have to UNTEACH what the man DID KNOW about the Lord.

He was not a member of some cult, who had to give up a hundred heresies before he could learn the truth.

What Apollos did know about the Lord Jesus was correct, but he had a lot more to learn.

In that, he was not unlike any of us, who have not apprehended ALL for which the Lord apprehended us.

However, it’s not Apollos that we’re concerned with this morning; it’s John the Baptist.

And before we come to the way that John’s ministry glorified our Saviour …

Let me try to undo some of the MISTAKES that people have about John the Baptist.

For example, many say that John was not a Christian, but rather an Old Testament saint and prophet of God.

Isn’t this just a matter of semantics – words?

What is the definition of the word “Christian”?

Doesn’t the word refer to “a follower of Christ?”

Even though John was the FORERUNNER of Christ, he was also a follower and worshipper of Christ.

But people say, “No one was a real Christian until after Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection, so there weren’t any Christians until the Book of Acts.”

But if you’re really interested in words, you need to admit that the word “Christian” is not used or even coined until Acts 11.

If someone is really interested in words, then shouldn’t he say that those who lived and died before the coining of the word were not Christians?

If the word didn’t exist until Acts 11, did the reality exist before that time? Certainly it did.

Well then, how long before?

Is there any question whether or not the Apostles were Christians?

When did those first eleven disciples become Christians?

Was it in Acts 11 when the people in Antioch began using the word “Christian”? Before then.

Was it in Acts 2, when the Holy Spirit descended in the fullness of power on the day of Pentecost?

Was it at the death of Christ,

or was it at the resurrection, something which most of the disciples at first denied?

Or should we say that the apostles were Christians when they were still following and learning from the Lord Jesus before His crucifixion?

I think that the disciples were Christians long before Jesus gave His life on the cross.

Are the four Gospels – Matthew, Mark, Luke and John – not Christian books of the Bible?

If they are Christian books, were the penned by Christians?

And then we must ask: Who was it who brought those eleven men to Christ in the first place?

The basic answer to that is John the Baptist.

And who was the only man to baptize those first Christians? Again it was John the Baptist.

Humanly speaking it was John the Baptist who evangelized the disciples and made the first Christians.

Should we say that the one who made the first Christians wasn’t a Christian himself?

Many people dogmatically say that John the Baptist was an Old Testament prophet.

But the evidence suggests that John was anything but Old Testament.

His father was a priest, who went about his priestly duties as his forefathers had done for generations.

Zacharias was as Old Testament as they come.

But John, the son of the Old Testament priest, apparently rejected the priesthood.

At least we never read of John performing any of the regular priestly functions.

We never read of him offering any blood sacrifices.

He didn’t live in one of the Levitical cities or in a priestly home.

He didn’t wear the priestly garments which are so clearly described in the Book of Leviticus.

And he shunned to eat the food rations which were set aside for the priests of the Old Testament.

As a priest, there would have been occasions when he would have resided in the temple, but as the servant of Christ, he never did.

I admit that when he died, he didn’t know all that there is to know about his Saviour,

but I also admit that I don’t know all that there is to know about the Saviour.

I know that I am a Christian, and there is no reason to say that John wasn’t a Christian either.

And as a Christian, John believed and preached CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE.

As everyone knows, the first book of the Bible is Genesis.

The Book of Genesis lays the doctrinal foundation for everything else in the Bible.

Almost every doctrine, even though it might not be theologically developed until much later, is at least hinted at in the first fifty chapters of the Bible.

“Genesis” doesn’t mean “beginning” for nothing.

In a similar way, John is a second “genesis.”

And as we read earlier, the first four verses of the Gospel of Mark say:

“The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God;

As it is written in the prophets, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee.

The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.

John did baptize in the wilderness, and preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.”

When Peter was talking to his Jewish friends on the day when the Lord redeemed Cornelius, he said,

“Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons:

But in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him.

The word which God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ: (he is Lord of all:) That word, I say, ye know, which was published throughout all Judaea, and began from Galilee, after the baptism which John preached;

How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.”

Peter put the ministry of John into a Christian context.

And likewise Paul referred to John’s Christian ministry in his sermon in Antioch in Acts 13.

We may not have a record of John’s development of all the so-called Christian doctrines, but we do have a record of him referring to many of them.

Please turn to John 1:15-28, and let’s take notice of some of John’s Christian doctrines.

“John bare witness of him, and cried, saying, This was he of whom I spake, He that cometh after me is preferred before me: for he was before me. And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace. For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.

No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.

And this is the record of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, Who art thou? And he confessed, and denied not; but confessed, I am not the Christ.

And they asked him, What then? Art thou Elias? And he saith, I am not. Art thou that prophet? And he answered, No.

Then said they unto him, Who art thou? that we may give an answer to them that sent us. What sayest thou of thyself?

He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Esaias. And they which were sent were of the Pharisees.

And they asked him, and said unto him, Why baptizest thou then, if thou be not that Christ, nor 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 coming after me is preferred before me, whose shoe’s latchet I am not worthy to unloose. These things were done in Bethabara beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing.”

When John said, “He that cometh after me is preferred before me: for he was before me,”

I believe that he was referring to the Old Testament Book of Micah and its declaration of the ETERNALITY and DEITY of Christ.

Micah 5:2 says, “But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.”

One of the many reasons that John knew that Jesus should be preferred before him, is because Jesus is the eternal Son of God.

John called the Lord Jesus, “the only begotten Son” which is a very special term.

It speaks about the absolutely unique relationship of the Father to the Son.

It takes us back into eternity, before the creation of the world, and it speaks about the mysteries of the Trinity.

When Satan tempted Christ in the wilderness, the battle was over whether or not Jesus was the Son of God.

“And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee.”

When Jesus exorcized demons, they often referred to the fact that He was the Son of God.

“And unclean spirits, when they saw him, fell down before him, and cried, saying, Thou art the Son of God.”

And when Pilate began to balk at the idea of crucifying Christ, the Jewish priests retorted: “We have a law, and by our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God.”

There should be no doubt that when John called Jesus the Son of God, he was referring to the deity of Christ.

And that deity is perhaps the most foundational and key doctrine of the Christian faith.

What did John mean when he said, “For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ”?

Did he mean that there was no truth in the world before Christ?

Did he mean that grace could not exist apart from the Lord Jesus?

Christ called Himself “the way, the truth and the life;” did John mean truth in the same way?

To what could John have been referring, if it wasn’t to Jesus’ intimate relationship to the Father when he said,

“No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him”?

These are essential Christian doctrines, and although they are found wedged between the pages of the Old Testament, these are clearly declared in the New Testament.

When John said, “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Esaias,” he was referring to Isaiah 40.

“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 glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.”

We know that when the Old Testament speaks about “the LORD” spelled out in all capital letters, it is talking about JEHOVAH GOD.

And thus when John quoted Isaiah 40:3 applying it to himself and to the Lord Jesus, he was declaring that he believed Jesus to be Jehovah God.

This is essential Christian doctrine.

It was the ministry of John to glorify and magnify the Lord Jesus.

And why did he consider himself UNWORTHY to unloose the sandal of the Saviour?

It was because no human being, even the greatest to be born of woman, is qualified to touch the feet of the infinite Son of God.

This is what John thought about the Lord Jesus.

Please turn to Matthew 3:1-12:

“In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea, And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.

And the same John had his raiment of camel’s hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey.

Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judaea, and all the region round about Jordan, and were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins.

But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance:

And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.

I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire:

Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

When John said, “God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham,”

he was declaring his understanding and faith in the absolute sovereignty and omnipotence of God.

No could tell John that his God was too small.

In verse 11, John made reference to the HOLY GHOST.

In fact John often referred to the Holy Spirit.

And when Paul returned to Ephesus and found that these twelve men knew nothing about the Holy Spirit, he realized that they had never directly sat under the ministry of John the Baptist.

And of course, John preached REPENTANCE long, loud and hard.

“When he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance:

As Paul said, “John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people, that they should believe on him which should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus.”

When Paul mentioned John’s “baptism of repentance,” he was pointing out the fact that he baptized people in reference to repentance.

If someone did not display the fruits, or the evidence, of humbly turning from his sins, then John refused to baptize them.

Baptism was not a ritualistic formality with John.

It was the testimony of a new life through the regeneration of the Holy Spirit and the grace of God in Christ.

The baptism of repentance speaks of genuine conversion – a change of mind and a change of life.

John’s baptism stood as a testimony of real salvation from sin.

Baptism of repentance meant baptism because of repentance and because of conversion.

So John held to the baptist doctrine of BELIEVERS BAPTISM.

He didn’t baptize people in order to make them Christians as so many of the Protestants do today.

John preached that JUDGMENT was coming, and that it would be administered by the Lord Jesus.

I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I,

whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire:

Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

John would have shouted “amen” if he had heard Paul’s words from II Thessalonians:

“And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels,

In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ:

Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power;

When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day.”

But not only did John believe that the Lord Jesus would come in flaming fire, he also believed Him to be the LAMB OF GOD.

In John 1 after first being introduced to the Saviour,

“The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith,

Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.”

I hope that you understand the meaning of those words.

John believed in the Biblical doctrine of SUBSTITUTIONAL ATONEMENT:

The Bible, in both Testaments, teaches that there is only one way to delivered from the penalty of our sins,

It takes the blood of the God-proscribed sacrifice.

It doesn’t matter if sensitive people don’t like the idea; it is the eternally ordained plan of God, and John, like his father the priest, certainly believed it.

But more specifically, John believed that the Lord Jesus was that God-ordained sacrifice.

John believed that only through the blood of Christ, could sinners be delivered and forgiven.

“Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.”

That Jesus of Nazareth was the Lamb of God, was not Old Testament doctrine.

That is the core of New Testament doctrine.

I believe that is another reason to think that John was as much a Christian as Peter or Paul.

But that question is moot, if YOU do not believe that Jesus is the Lamb of God.

Whether John was a Christian is not nearly as important to you, as whether YOU are a Christian.

Not only do you need to believe that Christ Jesus is the Lamb of God,

But you also need to be personally trusting Christ Jesus to save you, as your personal sacrifice.

You need to believe that the blood that He shed was meant for YOUR cleansing and YOUR redemption.

You need to humbly love Him and rest your soul on His gracious sacrifice.

Yes, I believe that John was a Christian, but are you?