Have you ever met someone with such a unique personality
that you couldn’t help but be drawn into their magnetic personality? I believe unique
is the one word that describes Jesus’ distinctive relative (maybe a cousin),
John the Baptist, when he preached to those in the wilderness around the Jordan
River in Judea (the southern part of Israel).
John’s conception was unique
(paternal angelic announcement), his clothing was unique (camel’s hair with a
leather belt), his diet was unique (locusts and wild honey), his predecessor
messages was unique (repent, and behold the Lamb of God), and his death was
unique (beheading).[i]
When I think of John the Baptist, the chorus of a song by the same title
(by Alana Allen) comes to mind all these years later. Can any of this apply to you?
And he was John the Baptist,
Herald to the coming One
He was John the Baptist
He came to glorify the
Father’s Son
And I want to be like John
the Baptist
Pointing people to the Lamb
There are many important lessons that we can
all learn from this one-of-kind country preacher.
1.
Don’t be afraid to stand for what’s right: There’s no doubt that
standing on the truth can put you in trouble. This is certainly what happened
to John the Baptist. He called sin as it was. When King Herod married his
brother’s wife, John did the right thing, and corrected the king for his sinful
behavior.
It
took a great deal of courage for John the Baptist to do as he did. Though doing
the right thing can help you live a blessed life, it cal also put you in some
turmoil. After criticizing the king, John the Baptist was imprisoned and
executed. Should this stop us from doing the right thing? Persecution for
Jesus’ cause should make us brave even to the point of death.
2.
God does the impossible to fulfill His purpose: John’s parents were
well advanced in years. His parents were Zacharias and Elizabeth, both from the
priestly family of Aaron. Elizabeth was barren and wasn’t able to bear a child. One day, while Zacharias was burning
incense in the temple, the angel Gabriel announced that he would have a son
with a special purpose.
God can work with
barren women to give them their heart’s desire. In the Bible, remember Sarah and her son Isaac, Hannah and her son Samuel,
and the wife of Manoah and her son Samson? The Almighty chose to open their
womb, and give them all children. God demonstrates here that He is the One who
does great miracles.
3.
God’s prophecy will surely come to pass: The appearance of
John the Baptist has long been prophesied in the Old Testament. The Bible tells
us that God is the One who can declare a prophecy and has the power to bring it
to pass even hundreds or thousands of years after proclaiming it. Isaiah
40:3(CEV) foretold about the work of John: Someone is shouting: “Clear a path in the desert. Make a
straight road for the Lord our God.”
And we read the fulfillment
of this prophecy in Matthew 3:1-3 (CEV): Years later, John the Baptist started preaching in the
desert of Judea. He said, “Turn back to God. The Kingdom of Heaven will soon be
here.” John was the one the prophet Isaiah was talking about,
when he said, “In the desert someone is shouting, ‘Get the road ready for the Lord.
Make a straight path for Him.’”
4.
Let Christ live in us: There’s one statement
made by John the Baptist that we must all take heed. He said in John 3:30(NLV):
“He must become more
important. I must become less important.” This is the mindset
that we must all have. We need to ask ourselves, “How much of ourselves dead to
sin, and how much of us is alive to Christ?”
5. Our faith will surely be put to
test:
Most
of us reading this might be living in a relatively peaceful area. Some of us
might even be living an affluent life with nothing to challenge our faith.
However, bear this in mind; time will come that our faith will be tested to the
limit. We read in I Peter 1:7 (CEB): “This is necessary so that your faith may be found genuine.
(Your faith is more valuable than gold, which will be destroyed even though it
is itself tested by fire.) Your genuine faith will result in praise, glory, and
honor for you when Jesus Christ is revealed.”
God does not
needlessly allow trials in our lives to. He is doing it so that we can have
necessary godly character. Just like John the Baptist whose faith was fiercely
tested, we will also come to the point when everything will seem impossible to
overcome. However, we can have the confidence that God will surely be there
with us to go through anything He needs us to endure.
6. We
need to be enthusiastic in doing God’s work:
Like John the
Baptist, we need to have the burning
desire to speak the Gospel to those around us. John the Baptist made it his
lifetime commitment to put God’s work first in his life. As Christians, we need
to make God’s work an important priority. We must have the vision to never let
anything come between our Heavenly Father and us.
“John the Baptist was supposed to
point the way to the Christ. He was just the voice (not the Messiah)...
Everybody's calling has dignity to it, and God seems to know better than we do
what is in us that needs to be called forth.” (James Green
Somerville)[iii]
 |
| Drawing of John the Baptist |
[i] Scriptural background on John the Baptist: Matthew 3:1-3,
14:10, Mark 1:6, Luke 1:5-25, 36, 3:3
[ii] God replied to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.
This is what you are to say to the Israelites: I AM has sent me to you.” (Exodus 3:14, CSB)
[iii] Sources used:
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