Preparing the Way
5BC – 29AD
Bible Reference: Isaiah 40:3, Malachi 3:1, Matthew 3:1-17, 11:1-19, Luke 1:5-80, John 1:19-34, 3:22-36
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- John was born to Zechariah, who was a priest, and Elizabeth, who was unable to have children and beyond childbearing years.
- His birth was foretold by the prophets Elijah and Malachi in the Old Testament and through the angel Gabriel who met Zechariah when he was serving as a priest in the temple.
- He was given the name John by the angel and Zechariah was silenced when he objected.
- After John’s birth, Zechariah was given his speech back when he insisted that the boy was named John.
- John began his ministry in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar in AD 25, preaching the approaching of the kingdom of heaven and administering the rite of baptism for repentance.
- He attracted large crowds of people from Judea and all around the area of the Jordan but performed no miracles or signs.
- John lived a life that was separate from others, choosing a way much like the prophets of old: set apart as a Nazarite, living in the desert, eating locusts and wild honey, and he clothing himself in camel hair and leather.
- John had the privilege of baptizing Jesus in the Jordan River, though he did not feel worthy. While Jesus was baptized, it was confirmed that He was the Son of God.
- With the baptism of Jesus, his special office of preparing the way was over, but he still continued to instruct his disciples and to point people to Jesus.
- Shortly after Jesus began His public ministry, John was put in prison by Herod Antipas when he called him out for sleeping with his brother’s wife, Herodias.
- During his imprisonment, Herod Antipas would frequently come to listen to John speak and feared to put him to death because of the people’s reaction.
- He sent word to Jesus asking if He was the expected one while in prison, and Jesus used it as an opportunity to praise John and to confirm that He was indeed the Messiah.
- John the Baptist was beheaded by Herod Antipas on the request of Herodias’s daughter who took advantage of a promise he made after she danced for him.
- John’s disciples let Jesus know, and then they took his body and buried him.
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