Generally, folks don’t read the introductions to books, and generally speaking we more or less skip over John the Baptist in order to get to Jesus, even though he was sent to introduce us to Jesus. So, before we come to Jesus’ ministry, the Gospel of John mentions John the Baptizer, saying he was a man sent from God (John 1:6). However, who is John, and how does his ministry introduce us to Jesus? He certainly doesn’t introduce us to the Gospel Jesus’ preached. In fact, it seems John misunderstood Jesus’ ministry of preaching the Gospel. Rather, he expected Jesus to take over his (John’s) ministry and finish it, but Jesus told him they should remain separate in order to fulfill all righteousness (Matthew 3:13-15). Moreover, on another occasion, while he was in prison, John sent his disciples to ask Jesus, if he was truly the Messiah who was to come, or should they look for another. This, because Jesus was so different from what John expected. So, Jesus sent John’s disciples back to him with a message he would be able to understand (Matthew 11:1-6). Therefore, if John wasn’t sent by God to introduce the Jewish world to Jesus’ ministry of the Gospel, why was he sent?
Luke introduces us to John by telling us about his miraculous birth, miraculous not in the sense that it was against nature, although his parents may have been past childbearing age (Luke 1:5-7). Rather, his birth was miraculous in the sense that an angel came to John’s father, predicted John’s birth, named him, described his future ministry (Luke 1:13-17) and struck John’s father dumb, until the day of John’s circumcision (Luke 1:20, 57-64). Moreover, Zechariah’s prophecy, concerning his son, described how John would go to Israel as the prophet of God and would prepare the way for the Messiah (Luke 1:76-79). So, once again we have John preparing the way for the Messiah, but John knows nothing of Jesus’ ministry of the Gospel!
Luke claims that, until he showed himself to Israel, John was in the desert or wilderness (G2048; Luke 1:80), which probably means he was in the hill country of Judea, where he was born (Luke 1:39, 65), until the time he was sent out by God. This implies that, although he was a promising young leader (cp. Luke 1:65-66), until the Lord actually sent John out, he was unfruitful, in terms of what one might expect of a prophet, whose coming was announced by an angel, predicting he was to execute his office in the spirit and power of Elijah, the prophet (Luke 1:13-17). What seems to be implied is John didn’t excel in any of the rabbinic schools of his day, which Paul claims he attended (cp. Acts 22:3). Moreover, if this is true, John probably wasn’t associated with any of those schools. In fact, all we know of John’s education and calling is what we find in chapter one of Luke’s Gospel. We have no reason to believe he was educated by anyone other than his father, Zechariah, nor do we know anything more about John’s calling than the angel’s testimony to his father (Luke 1:13-17) and Zechariah’s prophecy concerning his son (Luke 1:76-79), except to say that he was told to baptize with water, and he was given a sign by which he could identify the Messiah once he came (cp. John 1:33).
The text tells us that the Light, which enlightens every man was coming into the world (John 1:9), and John was sent by God before the Light to the end that all men might believe him, vis-à-vis believe the Light (John 1:7). Moreover, although John, himself, was a bright light in whom many rejoiced (John 5:35), he wasn’t the Light (John 1:8), and he made this abundantly clear to both his disciples and the Jewish authorities, who came to him asking if he were the Christ (John 1:20; 3:28; Acts 19:4). Instead, John pointed to the true Light (John 1:7), who was coming into the world (John 1:9; cp. Matthew 4:16; Luke 1:78-79; 2:32). Nevertheless, it was very clear that men loved the darkness they were in over the Light that would reprove their works (John 3:19-20), so for judgment John was sent by God (John 1:6, 10-11; 3:19-20). He was sent by God to prepare the way for the Messiah to judge his people, but more about this in my next study.
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