I wonder if you have ever given any thought to the extent of the preparations involved when the President of the United States makes a visit to a local community? A former agent with the FBI tells about some of those preparations. “A team of Secret Service personnel checks out every building along the route he will travel and near every place he will be appearing,” he says. “They go over each building with a fine toothcomb from roof to basement in their efforts to prepare for his safety. We often refer to people like [this] as ‘advance persons.’ They work invisibly behind the scenes to make sure that everything is ready for the big event that is about to take place.” (1)
Advance people or advance men are very important to any well-known person who moves from town to town.
Jesus had an advance man—someone who was in charge of preparing the way for his coming. That advance man was, of course, John the Baptist. John wasn’t hired by Jesus for this task. The prophet Isaiah assigned him to this task 400 years before.
As we saw last week, the prophet Isaiah foretold John’s coming. “A voice of one calling,” wrote Isaiah, “‘In the wilderness prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain. And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all people will see it together. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.’”
The appearance of John the Baptist in the wilderness was the most important event in the life of Israel for more than four hundred years. It had been that long since a prophet of God had lifted his voice to proclaim the word of the Lord.
Probably you or I would not have been drawn to the preaching of John the Baptist. A man clothed in camel’s hair and wild animal’s skins and subsisting on a diet of locusts and wild honey living out in the wilderness would not seem to have much to say about the way we live our lives. His appearance was eccentric. His preaching was morbid—all about sin and repentance—calling people snakes and warning them of the wrath that was to come. We like our sins treated more gently. Preferably we would like them mentioned not at all.
“From his birth,” says Dr. Fred Craddock, “John was set aside as a Nazirite. A Nazirite . . . was a person who was devoted to God and therefore lived away from society . . . A Nazirite; did not trim the beard, did not cut the hair, lived in an unusual way.” (2)
Two things may surprise us then about John the Baptist. One is how popular John was. The other is his role in the drama of the first Christmas.
As to his popularity, Mark tells us that “the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River,” (Mark 1:5). That was quite an amazing response to this wilderness preacher. Can you imagine every single person in a large metropolitan area and in all the surrounding countryside repenting of their sins and being baptized in a river? Over the years there have been many outstanding preachers, but none as effective as John the Baptist.
In Belfast, Ireland in the 1920s there was a very well-known, but somewhat strange preacher named William Nicholson whose ministry bore a resemblance to John’s ministry. Nicholson did things most preachers would never do. For example, he would call out people from the pulpit on their peculiarities and manner of dress. In other words, “he told it like it was.” And people seemed to love hearing him preach. They seemed to love being roasted from the pulpit.
Nicknamed “the Tornado of the Pulpit,” Nicholson aimed his ministry at men, particularly men who worked in the shipyards. It is said that his straightforward language communicated to the common man.
Nicholson would go to the massive shipyard in Belfast at lunchtime. He would conduct Bible studies and preach to the men during their lunch breaks.
Thousands of people claim to have been converted under his ministry. And such was the sense of repentance that came upon the shipyard workers from his preaching, that things that they had “borrowed” from the company and taken home–bits of equipment, inventory, etc. were returned. In the Belfast shipyard a shed, named “the Nicholson shed” was erected to house stolen tools that newly converted workers were returning as a result of his preaching. In fact, they had to rent a building in the town in order to store all this stuff. People were under conviction of sin. (3)
That seems to be the kind of preacher that John the Baptist was. But there was one fact that set John the Baptist apart from all other preachers. Among those who came to John to be baptized was a young carpenter, in fact a cousin of John the Baptist, named Jesus of Nazareth. But we are getting ahead of our story. Today, we want to know about John’s role in the first Christmas.
Luke begins his version of the Christmas story not with Mary and Joseph but with a couple named Zacharias and Elizabeth. Zacharias was a priest. He and Elizabeth were deeply religious people who did their best to keep all of God’s commandments. Late in life they were childless, much to their sorrow.
One day, while Zacharias was going about his priestly functions in the temple, he was startled by the appearance of an angel. It was our old friend Gabriel. “Do not be afraid, Zacharias,” said Gabriel. “Your prayers have been heard. Elizabeth your wife will bear you a son, and you are to call him John . . .”
Zacharias was nearly knocked off his feet. “How can I know that this is true?” he asked. “I am an old man myself and my wife is getting on in years . . .”
“I am Gabriel,” the angel answered. “I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to you and to tell you this good news.” As a sign to Zacharias that this message was true, he was literally “struck speechless,” which is how you or I would probably feel under similar circumstances.
When the new infant was born there was much joy in the home of Zacharias and Elizabeth. On the eighth day they took him to be circumcised. It was the custom to give the child its name at this rite of circumcision. Family and friends thought that the infant boy would be named Zacharias after his father. But Elizabeth spoke up and said, “Oh, no! His name is John.”
“But none of your relations is called John,” they replied. And they made signs to the poor mute Zacharias to see what name he wanted the child to have.
Zacharias beckoned for a writing tablet and wrote the words: “His name is John.” At this moment Zacharias’ speech was restored and his first words were to thank God. The neighbors were awe-struck, and news of these events spread throughout Judea. People asked, “What is this child’s future going to be?” For, as Luke says, “The Lord’s blessing was plainly upon him.”
It was six months after Gabriel had given the joyous news to Zacharias that he would father a son that Gabriel also appeared to a young woman in Nazareth named Mary. Gabriel’s message to Mary was that she too would bear a son, but not just any son. He would be the Son of the Most High God and his name would be Jesus.
Mary was a cousin of Elizabeth. They must have been very close, for Mary spent three months of her pregnancy living with Zacharias and Elizabeth. Indeed, Elizabeth was the first person in the Scriptures to declare that Jesus is Lord. You will find the story in the first chapter of Luke.
As you are aware, we know very little about Jesus’ childhood. However, in view of Mary and Elizabeth’s close relationship, can we not speculate that young John and his six-month younger cousin Jesus spent a great deal of time together? Perhaps they played together and fished together and did all the things young men like to do.
Might this not explain the kind of man John the Baptist became? He was in intimate contact with Jesus. Cousins can certainly have that kind of influence on each other.
Might this also not explain John the Baptist’s reaction when he saw Jesus come out with the others to be baptized? Matthew tells us that John was reluctant to baptize his younger cousin. “I need you to baptize ME,” John protested. This says something special to me about Jesus’ character as a youth and young adult.
The Jewish historian Josephus affirms that John the Baptist’s ministry was a stunning success. Untold numbers of people from all over the area came to be baptized by him in the river Jordan. Many of those who were baptized became his disciples. They studied with John and sought to follow him as others later were to follow Jesus.
Indeed, two of Jesus’ most prominent disciples, Andrew and John, were originally followers of John the Baptist. You will remember that one of the most gifted and influential preachers mentioned in the book of Acts was a man named Apollos, who, according to Acts 18:25 was originally baptized as a disciple of John.
Yet consider the humility of this man John. “I baptize with water,” John replied, “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.”
This says a lot about Jesus, if John was unfit to untie his sandals. But it also says much about John. He was a man of great humility.
New Testament scholar Don Juel once pointed out that, in this chapter, John the Baptist becomes the man who is not. When the priests and Levites ask him who he is, he replies that “he is not the light. He is not the Christ. He is not Elijah. He is not the final Prophet.” Then he adds, “He is not worthy to untie the true One’s sandals. He is not the one to baptize with the Holy Spirit.
“John the Baptist had a kind of reverse résumé,” says Juel. “Typically on a résumé you list all the things that you are, all the things you have done and accomplished. But John had a résumé that was like a photographic negative: before he could say who he was and what he had come to do, he had to go on and on to say who he was not and what his work would not be about!” (4)
In spite of his own popularity, John sought to direct attention not to himself but to Jesus. That kind of humility is a rare commodity even today. It was not his intent to draw attention to himself. His greatest desire was to glorify Jesus.
The great composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein once said that the hardest instrument to play is second fiddle. John willingly took on the part of second fiddle.
John was a humble man. He was also a man of enormous courage. The ending to John’s life was tragic, as you know. He offended the royal family of his day by confronting them with their sins and, for his efforts, he was beheaded. John the Baptist was a preacher of righteousness and he would not betray his convictions. The world has always been made better by men and women of such character.
Some of you will remember a young Wall Street Journal reporter named Daniel Pearl. A man of Jewish faith, Pearl was working at the time as the South Asia Bureau Chief of the Wall Street Journal. He was based in Mumbai, India. He and his wife, Mariane, had not been married long. She was expecting their first baby.
And then, in 2002, a great tragedy occurred in their lives. Pearl was kidnapped when he went to Pakistan as part of an investigation into the alleged links between British citizen Richard Reid (known as the “shoe bomber”) and Al-Qaeda. You remember what happened to him? He was decapitated, like John the Baptist. His captors filmed the execution, and they released it on video, circulating it online for all the world to see. (5)
Daniel Pearl paid the ultimate price for his commitment to his country. John the Baptist paid the ultimate price for his commitment to God. John was a man of humility and courage. Just as impressive, however, was his determination to bear witness to the light.
John bore witness to the light in his preaching. He bore witness in his life. On the banks of the Jordan he proclaimed that the Kingdom of God was at hand. When he saw Jesus he declared, “Behold the Lamb of God . . .” He was the ultimate “advance man.” He prepared the way for the coming Messiah.
So, as you celebrate this Christmas season, as you think about the shepherds and the wise men and the star and Mary and Joseph and all the rest of the important figures and events of that first Christmas, give a little thought to another small child born six months before Christ to a deeply devout couple named Zacharias and Elizabeth. Their son was not the Messiah. He simply bore witness to the Messiah.
There was no star shining over the house where he lay, just a mute old man beaming down at him with pride and great joy. It was the joy of one who had lived to see the promises of God fulfilled. It was plain at John’s birth according to Luke that the Lord’s blessing was upon him, and it was. He grew into a man of humility and courage who proclaimed the coming of the Lord. Jesus himself composed John’s epitaph when he said on one occasion, “No greater man has ever been born than John” (Mt. 11:11).
That was John the Baptist—humility, courage. And a commitment to bear witness to the light of God.
1. Steve Biedermann, “How Do We Advance God’s Light in the World Today,” https://sbiedermann.wordpress.com/2012/01/29/john-16-819-28-sermon/.
2. The Collected Sermons of Fred B. Craddock (pp. 110-111). Presbyterian Publishing Corporation. Kindle Edition.
3. Adapted from a sermon by Dr. Derek Thomas, First Presbyterian Church, Jackson, MS, https://www.fpcjackson.org/resource-library/sermons/the-beginning-of-the-gospel.
4. http://cep.calvinseminary.edu/thisWeek/viewContent.php?iID=18&sID=1.
5. Wikipedia.