John the Baptist: The Forerunner Who Pointed to Jesus

People came out to hear John the Baptist, yet he was preparing them to follow Someone else. When Jesus appeared, John directed his own hearers to Him and rejoiced as they went. That willingness to step back deserves as much attention as his courage in confronting sin. I want my teaching to help people trust Christ, and John’s ministry makes me examine whether I would welcome their growing confidence in the Lord if it meant they needed less help from me. His imprisonment also forces us to consider what faithful service can cost when the truth offends someone with power.

The Promised Forerunner

The Gospels explain John’s calling through promises in Isaiah and Malachi. He was the forerunner, a messenger sent ahead to prepare people for the Lord’s arrival. His preaching and baptism called them to face their sin and turn back to God. John could urge them to repent, but taking away their sin and giving them the Holy Spirit belonged to the One he announced. Isaiah helps us understand why preparing people for Him was necessary.

The voice of one crying in the wilderness: “Prepare the way of the LORD; Make straight in the desert A highway for our God.”

Isaiah 40:3, NKJV

Isaiah 40 brings comfort to people who have experienced God’s discipline: the LORD promises to rescue and shepherd them. Preparing a road for a king’s arrival gives a picture of the welcome due to Him. In John’s ministry, making ready for the Lord required people to face the condition of their hearts. A respected family or religious standing could not prepare them to receive Him while they continued defending the sin He condemned.

Malachi carries that promise further by identifying whom the messenger would precede. The LORD Himself speaks of the messenger preparing the way before Him.

“Behold, I send My messenger, And he will prepare the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, Will suddenly come to His temple, Even the Messenger of the covenant, In whom you delight. Behold, He is coming,” Says the LORD of hosts.

Malachi 3:1, NKJV

The Gospels apply this promise to John preparing people for Jesus. I understand that connection as testimony to Christ’s deity, meaning that He is truly God. Jesus is the Lord whose coming Malachi announced, so I cannot reduce Him to a gifted teacher. The study on the deity of Jesus examines the wider biblical teaching.

Malachi also speaks of Elijah coming before the great and dreadful Day of the LORD. Luke explains how John’s calling relates to that promise: he would come “in the spirit and power of Elijah.” This was an Elijah-like ministry of calling the disobedient back to God and preparing people for the Lord. John was not Elijah reincarnated in another body.

Luke takes us back to the announcement of that calling before John was born. His father, Zechariah, was a priest, and his mother, Elizabeth, was also descended from Aaron. They had grown old without children, although Luke describes them as righteous before God. Their childlessness gives us no grounds to conclude that He had rejected them. While Zechariah served in the temple and the people prayed outside, Gabriel announced that Elizabeth would bear a son and explained the work God would give him.

He will also go before Him in the spirit and 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.

Luke 1:17, NKJV

Gabriel’s words describe more than the arrival of a long-awaited child. John would turn hearts toward the LORD, calling disobedient people to the wisdom of the just. Luke also says he would be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother’s womb, marking him out for this unique responsibility. After John’s birth, Zechariah spoke of his son as the prophet of the Highest who would prepare the Lord’s ways. From these first announcements, John’s importance lay in the One he would serve.

The Wilderness Voice and the Call to Repent

When Matthew introduces John’s public preaching, he places him in the wilderness of Judea. Israel had known the wilderness as a place of testing and dependence on God. Now, away from the usual centers of religious and political influence, John called the people to prepare for the Lord by repenting.

In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!”

Matthew 3:1-2, NKJV

To repent was to change their minds about sin and turn back to God. A person can regret the embarrassment of being found out while remaining determined to carry on with what he has done. John called for an honest acknowledgment that God’s verdict was right and that their sin needed to be confessed and forsaken. He wasn’t requiring people to punish themselves until God accepted them. I need to examine the same difference in my own response: if I will admit only what leaves my reputation intact, I am still trying to control how much correction I receive.

The prophet delivering that warning wore a garment of camel’s hair with a leather belt, and he ate locusts and wild honey. His appearance recalled Elijah, and his way of life was far removed from the comforts of Herod’s court. People had come out to the wilderness to hear a man who challenged their sin rather than assuring them that their present condition was acceptable.

That warning applied to religious leaders as well as the other people who came to him. When Pharisees and Sadducees came to his baptism, John challenged their reliance on descent from Abraham. Belonging to that family did not excuse them from the repentance he required.

Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not think to say to yourselves, “We have Abraham as our father.” For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones.

Matthew 3:8-9, NKJV

John required fruit as evidence that their repentance was genuine. He was not setting a price they could pay for forgiveness. If they claimed to have repented while continuing to cherish their pride and sin, their conduct contradicted the claim. Having Abraham as an ancestor would not make God overlook that refusal to change.

For those who did repent, John’s baptism provided a public way to acknowledge that God’s verdict about their sin was right. The water neither removed sin nor caused the new birth. Baptism served John’s calling to prepare Israel for the Messiah, who would provide the salvation they needed. Receiving the ceremony without responding to its message would leave them unprepared to meet Him.

Jesus at the Jordan

Because John’s baptism accompanied repentance, Jesus’ request to be baptized presented an obvious difficulty. He came from Galilee to the Jordan without any sin to confess or any need for cleansing. John knew that he needed what Jesus could give and initially tried to prevent the baptism.

Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. And John tried to prevent Him, saying, “I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?” But Jesus answered and said to him, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he allowed Him.

Matthew 3:13-15, NKJV

Jesus answered John’s objection by explaining that their obedience would fulfill righteousness. I understand His baptism as identifying Himself with the people He had come to save, while remaining the sinless One who would stand in their place. He was willingly accepting the Father’s appointed path, which would lead to the cross. The baptism also became the occasion for the Father and the Holy Spirit to testify to His identity.

When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

Matthew 3:16-17, NKJV

The Father spoke from heaven about His Son, who had just been baptized, while the Spirit descended upon Him. We cannot explain their distinct actions as one Person changing roles. This is a revelation of the Trinity: one God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, personally distinct without being separate gods.

John’s own preaching emphasized the authority of the One coming after him. John baptized with water, but Jesus would baptize with the Holy Spirit. John also warned of baptism with fire, and the wheat and chaff in Matthew 3 explain that warning. The coming King gathers His wheat into the barn and burns the chaff with unquenchable fire. I understand the fire as judgment, so I would not use John’s warning as a way to describe spiritual excitement.

John’s water baptism also had a preparatory purpose that distinguishes it from Christian baptism after Christ’s death and resurrection. Much later, in Acts 19, Paul met men who knew only John’s baptism and explained that John had told people to believe in the One coming after him, Jesus Christ. Christian water baptism follows salvation and publicly identifies the believer with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection. It pictures that union without causing forgiveness or new birth. The study on baptism in the Bible develops that distinction.

Behold the Lamb of God

John’s baptism and preaching therefore directed people beyond their acknowledgment of sin to the Savior who could take it away. Admitting that I have done wrong does not make atonement for it. I still need a sacrifice that deals with my guilt before God, and John announced the One who would provide it. His declaration in John 1 comes on the day after a delegation from Jerusalem questioned him about his own identity.

The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”

John 1:29, NKJV

The title Lamb of God connects Jesus’ work with sacrifice and substitution, including the Passover pattern and the need for shed blood. He would give Himself for people whose sin neither better behavior nor John’s baptism could remove. John went on to testify that the Savior he announced was God’s own Son.

And I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God.

John 1:34, NKJV

John’s reverence for Jesus followed from who Jesus was. He said he was unworthy even to loosen His sandal, and his explanation that Jesus “was before me” points beyond their ages, because John was born first. I understand his words as testimony to the Son’s eternal existence as well as His superior rank.

The eternal Son was the Lamb John said would take away the sin of the world. I understand John 1:29 as describing a genuine provision for everyone. Christ’s blood is sufficient for all, and His offer of salvation remains sincere even when people resist it. This does not mean that everyone is automatically saved, since each person must repent and believe. Everyone who receives Him by faith will be saved.

John’s announcement looked ahead to the cross, where the sinless Jesus willingly gave Himself to be slain as the perfect sacrifice for our sins. Wicked men tortured Him and put Him to death, but He offered His own innocent life for us. His shed blood and death completed His saving sacrifice before He was buried and rose bodily. The Father did not punish, curse, abandon, strike, bruise, or pour wrath on Jesus. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit remained united in our redemption. John could prepare people to receive that salvation, but he could never provide it himself.

He Must Increase

John kept directing people to Jesus even when his own disciples became concerned about how many were going to Him. He reminded them that his assignment had come from heaven: he was not the Christ, but the messenger sent ahead of Him. People turning to Jesus fulfilled the purpose of John’s work. Trying to win them back for himself would have opposed the very reason God had sent him.

He must increase, but I must decrease.

John 3:30, NKJV

John described himself as the bridegroom’s friend, who rejoices to hear the bridegroom’s voice. The arrival of the One he had announced gave him joy, even as his own prominence diminished. He wasn’t despising himself or declaring his ministry a failure. He could gladly accept the place God had given him because people were coming to Christ.

John 1 says he was sent to bear witness to the Light, but he was not the Light himself. I need to remember that when I teach. If someone I have helped begins to understand Scripture and trust Christ without needing my approval for every decision, I ought to welcome that growth. Trying to preserve his dependence on me would make my own importance more precious to me than his confidence in the Lord.

The same temptation can enter other forms of service. A person writing or singing in Christ’s name can become preoccupied with admiration, and a parent can begin to value being needed more than helping a child trust the Lord. We still have responsibilities to the people we serve, but fulfilling them should strengthen their faith in Jesus. I want to be glad when the help I give enables someone to rely on Him with greater confidence.

John in Prison and a Faithful Death

John’s service also brought him into conflict with a ruler whose sin he would not excuse. Herod Antipas ruled Galilee under Roman authority and had married Herodias, his brother’s wife. When John told him that the marriage was unlawful, Herod imprisoned him. The ruler had heard the same moral standard John preached to the crowds, and his royal power did not exempt him from it.

During that imprisonment, John sent disciples to ask Jesus, “Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?” Some readers understand the question as John’s own struggle in prison; others think he wanted his disciples to hear Jesus’ answer for themselves. I would not claim to know a motive the passage does not state. What we can examine is the answer Jesus sent back to John, drawn from works the messengers could hear and see.

Jesus answered and said to them, “Go and tell John the things which you hear and see: The blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them.”

Matthew 11:4-5, NKJV

Isaiah 35:5-6 had described blind eyes opening and the lame leaping, while Isaiah 61:1 announced good news to the poor. Jesus directed John to works that fulfilled those promises, providing evidence that the Messiah had come. John had announced judgment as well as salvation, yet a corrupt ruler still held him in prison. Jesus’ answer drew attention to the mercy already being shown; it did not require John to conclude that every part of the promised judgment had already occurred. The study on the Messiah in the Bible examines those promises.

After John’s disciples left, Jesus honored him before the crowd, saying that none born of women had been greater than John the Baptist. He answered John’s question without disowning the servant who had asked it. In the same discourse, Matthew 11:13 says that the prophets and the Law prophesied until John. His calling placed him at the point when the Messiah they had foretold appeared publicly. John had been entrusted with preparing people to receive Him.

John remained in prison, however, and Herodias wanted him killed. Mark records that Herod feared John as a just and holy man, protected him, and even heard him gladly. At his birthday feast, Herod made a rash promise after Herodias’s daughter pleased him with her dancing. Her mother told her to ask for John’s head. Herod was deeply sorry when she made that demand, yet his concern for his oaths and his guests prevailed over what he knew about John. He ordered the prophet beheaded in prison. Making a reckless promise had given him no right to murder an innocent man.

John died before the cross and the empty tomb. He never saw Pentecost or the spread of the gospel to the nations, but he had seen the Lamb and directed people to Him. I think it is reckless to treat his death as evidence that he needed stronger faith. Jesus had honored him, and Herod was responsible for the wicked decision to kill him. John’s obedience did not keep him safe, but his murder could not undo the work God had given him to do.

That cost makes John’s example uncomfortable to consider. Would I speak as plainly about sin if the person hearing me could damage my livelihood or reputation? Firm words are easier when I expect no repercussions. John does not give us an excuse for harshness or reckless accusations, but neither does his death give us a reason to soften Scripture for our own protection. Herod needed the warning John gave him, although he had the power to imprison the man who spoke.

John’s call to repentance also confronts those of us who feel safe within a religious community. His hearers could not rely on descent from Abraham while refusing God’s verdict about their sin. Familiar Christian language gives us no exemption from repentance either. I need the Savior John announced, not simply a respectable identity among people who know the Bible.

Everyone who receives the risen Christ by faith is forgiven and declared righteous before God. He gives that person new birth, and the Holy Spirit indwells and seals the believer. This salvation is eternally secure, and the new life should produce the fruit of repentance John called for. That fruit never earns or keeps salvation, but a profession of faith without any intention of turning from sin gives us no grounds to assume someone has been born again. We need to distinguish the life Christ gives from permission to continue in lawlessness.

My Final Thoughts

John could rejoice when people left him to follow Jesus, and he could tell Herod the truth when silence would have been safer. Both responses grew from accepting the work God had given him. I want to teach with that honesty, willing to lose attention or face opposition when faithfulness requires it. Above all, I need to keep directing people to the Savior I need myself, the Lamb whose sacrifice accomplished what no preacher or religious ceremony could do.