And there appeared to him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense. And Zechariah was troubled when he saw him, and fear fell upon him. But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John.”
Luke 1:11-13
The Twelve Days of Advent exists to help believers reflect and project; we hope your reflections on the meaning and events of Christ’s first advent will provoke joyful, hopeful worship at the many projections of Christ’s second advent. If there was ever a person whose life was predicated upon projecting the coming of Christ, it was John the Baptist’s. John’s purpose and mission in life was to prepare the way for the coming of the Messiah, Jesus.
In ancient days, it was commonplace for kings to send messengers ahead of themselves to prepare the way for their visitation. The messenger, sent in advance, was responsible for removing any hindrances that may impede the king upon his majesty’s arrival. Both Isaiah and Malachi tell of such a messenger who would be the forerunner for Jesus upon his arrival and the initiation of his earthly ministry.
The Prophets and a Priest Discuss John’s Ministry
Isaiah’s prophecy says, “A voice cries: In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert highway for our God” (Isaiah 40:3). Malachi 3:1 foretells of John the Baptist saying, “Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me.” After John’s birth, his father was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied about his son, declaring, “And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways” (Luke 1:76). These texts portray John the Baptist as God’s prophet who exists to prepare the way for Jesus Christ’s earthly ministry.
John’s father, Zechariah, was not the only person to declare that his son was a prophet from God. In fact, it was the angel Gabriel who first hinted that John the Baptist would be a prophet. When Zechariah burned incense in the temple, Gabriel told the priest that his son John would come “in the spirit and power of Elijah” (Luke 1:17).
In Luke 7, while in prison, John the Baptist sent messengers to Jesus, who made inquiries about the authenticity of Christ on behalf of John. When Christ answered their questions and sent the messengers away, Jesus spoke to the crowds around him concerning John, saying,
What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. This is he of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your ways before you (Luke 7:26-27).
In one small discourse, Jesus removes any ambiguity about John’s identity and confirms the message of Isaiah, Malachi, Gabriel, and Zechariah. Jesus teaches us that John the Baptist was God’s prophet who lived to prepare the way for his earthly ministry. And yet, although we often think of John as the one preparing the way for the Lord, we don’t always think of John the Baptist as a prophet.
The Prophetic Ministry of John
The word prophet means “one who speaks in place of” or “spokesman,” meaning that the prophets in the Bible were God’s spokesman to the people. In the Old Testament, the message of the prophets “focused on three key areas:” 1) rebuking Israel for covenant disobedience, 2) warnings and predictions regarding the nations, and 3) “promises of a glorious kingdom in which Israel would be restored under her Messiah.”[1] Although John the Baptist appears in our Bible within the New Testament, his ministry occurred during the Old Covenant before Jesus inaugurated the New Covenant. For this reason, and Gabriel’s comparison of John to the Prophet Elijah, it is helpful to view John’s ministry as similar to the Old Testament prophets. John, like the prophets of old, was empowered by the Holy Spirit to execute his ministry, and here is a taste, through the lens of Luke’s Gospel, of what his ministry was like:
Luke records that John the Baptist was great before the Lord (1:15). His preaching of repentance gave the knowledge of salvation to his people for the forgiveness of sins (1:77). John baptized the repentant and refused baptism to those who were not repentant (Luke 3:7-9). He amassed crowds of disciples compiled of commoners, tax collectors, and even Roman soldiers (Luke 3:10-14). And when Jesus came on the scene, John gladly saw the number of his disciples decrease and the number of Jesus’ disciples increase (John 3:30). John’s ministry, empowered by the Holy Spirit, was so powerful and captivating at times that on many occasions, people confused him with either the prophet Isaiah or the Messiah himself (Luke 3:15).
As powerful as John’s prophetic ministry of preparing the way for the Lord was, John himself said, “I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him” (John 3:28) and, “he who is mightier than I is coming” (Luke 3:16). John’s prophetic ministry ultimately prepared the way for a prophet much greater than himself.
The Word Became Flesh
One of the key differences between John and Jesus is written in Luke 3. Here, we find John the Baptist on the precipice of his earthly ministry, dwelling in the wilderness. In verse 2, Luke records, “the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness.” Then, John goes about proclaiming the message given to him. Like all true prophets before him, John’s message is not his own, but rather his words come from God. So, what is the difference between John and Jesus? John required the word to come to him in the wilderness but Jesus, according to John 1:14, is the word. John required revelation from God but the advent of Jesus is the source of God’s revelation.[2]
So, while we are thankful for John the Baptist’s miraculous, Spirit-filled birth to a barren woman, his powerful prophetic preparation of Christ’s earthly ministry, and his unrelenting message of repentance for forgiveness of sins . . . we are most thankful that John’s birth and life point us to the miraculous, Spirit-filled birth of a baby born to a virgin and man who died to guarantee the very forgiveness that John preached about.
In the same manner that the priests and kings before Jesus point to the Savior as the final, superior High priest and King of Kings, so do the prophets, like John the Baptist, point us to the superiority of the final and greatest prophet: Jesus (Hebrews 1:1-2) who fulfills this office by revealing to us, by His Word and Spirit, the will of God for our salvation (WSC Q24).
[1] John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue, eds., Biblical Doctrine: A Systematic Summary of Biblical Truth (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway, 2017), 858.
[2] Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1994), 626.
The Twelve Days of Advent 