Day Month Year
John the Baptist
Significant person in the Bible, whose life can be used for the true Christian as an example. He was honest with the sinners and he had never failed in his faith. The Story of John begins when Angel were send by God to Zachary (father of John), who was the priest. And when it was Zacharias turn to serve in the temple the angel appeared to him and said “Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John. He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” (Luke 1:11-17 New International Version Bible), but Zachary was weak and old, so he was not sure in his abilities to have kids, so because he was unsure also in the power of God, God had taken his ability to speak until the birth of John. And for the child years of John are written in Luke 1:80 “And the child grew and became strong in spirit[d]; and he lived in the wilderness until he appeared publicly to Israel”.
Apostle Mathew had described us how the John Baptist lived that time “John’s clothes were made of camel’s hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey.” (Matthew 3:4) and according to this lifestyle we can admit that Jesus says that he did that because “he is the Elijah” (Matthew 11:14). He (John) is preaching that the time had come, when God had send Messiah to save all the nations from the death. In addition, it is important to notice that God had chosen John to baptize Jesus “among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist” (Luke 11:11). Surely, John did not understood why he should baptize Jesus. Before that, he was baptizing only those people who were regretting in their sins, and even more, he was not baptizing Pharisees and Sadducees for they had no regret for what they had done in the words “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?” we surely can see that he does understand sinful human nature of those people, because they wanted to be baptized not be relieved of death, but to rather “please” God in order not to get any punishment. Moreover, he was rejecting people who were just doing this because this “everyone is doing this, so I will do too”. Due to previous facts, we can make conclusion that God gave great abilities to John in understanding human hearts, and John had spoken to them with the truth that God had provided to him. When Jesus came to John, we can see that John is confused of this fact. And from the human point of view we can understand why. Think that you are proclaiming that there is coming a Savior off all human beings, who is the true God, and this Person is coming up to you, and asks you to baptize him. John is answering that “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” and here we can see how strong the faith of this man is, because God told him to do that, and he deed so the prophecy came true.
Through all his life John was proclaiming good news for the believers, and he was pointing on the sinners and warned them, that because of what they are doing they will face eternal death. “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near” (Matthew 3:2), and we can see that he had dedicated his life to the serving of God. He was so popular that time for his wise and declaration of salvation and Gods word, that people asked him “why then do you baptize if you are not the Messiah?” (John 1:24), and he answered “but among you stands one you do not know. He is the one who comes after me, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie” (John 1:26), and he was pointing on Jesus.
Also John had two disciples who had followed Jesus, those two disciple were apostle Peter and Apostle Andrew. Therefore, we can conclude that he was good teacher and righteous man if he left his disciples to follow what is good (even great) for them.
“But when John rebuked Herod the tetrarch because of his marriage to Herodias, his brother’s wife, and all the other evil things he had done, Herod added this to them all: He locked John up in prison” (Luke 3:19-20). John was not afraid to tell to the King that his life was fulfilled with sin. From the prison, John sends his disciples to ask “Are you the one who is to come?” (Matthew 11:3) Why he did his we can only guess, but as for me even he was a great prophet, he was just a human being in the prison so this is understandable why he might have doubt in that question, or maybe he send his disciples to Jesus so they would see him by their eyes and believe in Messiah. Who knows? Only God does.
King Herod had great party in the palace, and the daughter of his lover made a great dance for them and King told to here “Ask me for anything you want, and I’ll give it to you”(Mark 6:23), and she under the influence of her mother asked him a head of John. “The king was greatly distressed, but because of his oaths and his dinner guests, he did not want to refuse her And he deed his promise” (Mark 6:26). This is the final lines of this paper. Great man, and the Last Prophet of Old Testament had finished his life travel on the planet Earth, that is till full of sin, and joined heavens and Glory of the God Father, Holy Spirit, and Jesus Christ.
Bibliography
The Holy Bible: New International Version. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2005. Print.
