The Forerunner

Dr. John Clayton's sermon on Luke 3:1-6 from our service on July 28, 2024, the twelfth in his sermon series The Gospel of Luke.

In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness. And he went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet,

            The voice of one crying in the wilderness:

            ‘Prepare the way of the Lord,

                        make his paths straight.

            Every valley shall be filled,

                        and every mountain and hill shall be made low,

            and the crooked shall become straight,

                        and the rough places shall become level ways,

            and all flesh shall see the salvation of God’ (Luke 3:1–6).[1]

As we move into the third chapter of the Gospel of Luke, we are reintroduced to John, the son of the priest Zechariah and Elizabeth, the relative of Mary, the mother of Jesus. You may recall that Luke’s Gospel begins with the supernatural revelation of John’s conception[2] but most importantly his calling. As the angel Gabriel said to Zechariah, “And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, and he will 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 for the Lord a people prepared” (1:16-17). This was the theme of his life, a life dedicated to making “ready for the Lord a people prepared.” And so, Luke tells us at the conclusion of the first chapter, “And the child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness until the day of his public appearance to Israel” (1:80). Living as an ascetic, John waited in the wilderness, wearing a garment of camel’s hair with a leather belt and eating locusts and wild honey.[3] Filled with the Holy Spirit since his mother’s womb, he knew his purpose but awaited the Word of the Lord.

When would it come? The Apostle Paul tells us that Jesus came in “the fullness of time” (Gal. 4:4), but Luke helps us by narrowing the commencement of John’s ministry to a specific time. Since the Roman Empire reigned supreme, date it back to the emperor: “the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar” (1). Since Rome ruled over Israel, date it back to the Roman governor over Judea: “Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea” (1). Since Jesus would come from Nazareth of Galilee, date it back to the Roman-appointed authorities of that region: The tetrarchs Herod, Philip, and Lysanias. Since John and Jesus were children of Israel, date it back to the former and current high priests, “during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas” (2). So, when did the word of God come to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness (2)? Somewhere between A.D. 26 and A.D. 29, probably A.D. 27.[4]

But Luke is doing more here than helping us tell time. He is showing us that the grand narrative of Scripture is not dictated by the king of a nation but the King of heaven. It is our tendency to make much of our leaders, even elevating them to cult-like worship. We are not too different from the Roman Empire after all. Who was the most famous person of A.D 27? Who wouldn’t say Caesar? But while Caesar reigned supreme over his empire, the forerunner of the King of kings was quietly called to commence, to herald the coming of Christ. The greatest events in history often go unnoticed by the world, because God’s ways are not our ways nor his thoughts our thoughts.[5] While the world is busy watching its ways and the lives of its leaders, God is at work orchestrating all things for the reign of his kingdom and glory. In A.D. 27, the world celebrated Caesar, but in a quiet corner of Israel’s wilderness near the Jordan River the Word of God came to John, the forerunner of Christ.

The forerunner … who heard God speak.

When God delivered his prophetic Word to John, no one had seen or heard a prophet of God for over 400 years. And now, on the banks of the Jordan River there stood a wild-looking man from the wilderness, a prophet from God, “proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins” (3). John preached repentance and administered baptism, an outward symbol of washing away the guilt of sin. John’s preaching and baptizing were then inseparably connected, conveying a simple, beautiful message from the Lord: repent and be forgiven, a message for sinners. But it was not so simple for those who believed they had no need to repent, those who believed that their heritage justified their standing before God.[6]

Matthew’s Gospel tells us that John “saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism” (Matt. 3:7), not to be baptized but likely to behold the spectacle: Why were so many leaving the cities of Judea and flocking to this man in the wilderness? Why were so many being baptized by him? What need had a child of Abraham of repentance? John reserved his choicest of greetings for them, saying, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” (Matt. 3:7). John wasn’t trying to win friends and influence people. He was preaching the message God had given him to deliver to Israel, saying,

Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire (Matt. 3:8-10).

It’s strong language, directed not at those who repented but those who would not. John’s message and baptism of repentance were not, however, an end in themselves but pointed to the one who saves us from our sins. No matter your heritage, no matter your name, there is only one way to be forgiven of your sins and justified before God: faith in Jesus Christ. And it is through faith in Christ that we are enabled to repent of our sins. We may think of it as a repentance that leads to life, which the Westminster Shorter Catechism helpfully defines as “a saving grace by which a sinner has a true sense of his sin and realization of the mercy of God in Christ and then with grief and hatred of his sin turns from it to God fully intending and striving after new obedience.”[7] Just as John called the children of Israel to repentance, so we are called to be faithful to confess our sins to God and repent of them.

Christian, God the Father did not ordain, nor God the Son accomplish, nor God the Spirit apply your salvation for you to wallow in your sin and compromise the joyful fellowship that he intends. If Christ is your savior, he has saved you from the guilt of your sins, past, present, and future, but your sin nature still witnesses its presence in you through sins of thought, word, and deed. For this reason, we who are justified as righteous in Christ, must exercise repentance in our sanctification, honestly confessing our sins to God and enjoying the promised forgiveness and sweet fellowship that accompany it. As the Apostle John teaches us, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us” (1 John 1:8-10). Don’t harbor your sins but confess them, repenting of them regularly, for he who is just is always faithful to forgive.

The forerunner … who baptized sinners.

Included in John’s call to repentance is a baptism of water. For this reason, he is referred to as John the Baptist. But where did baptism come from? It seems to come out of nowhere. Did John invent it?

In the Old Testament Scriptures, we often see water used as a symbol of cleansing. For example, in Leviticus we read that God instructed Moses to ordain Aaron and his sons as priests beginning with washing them with water, cleansing for the purpose of their priestly service.[8] Also in Leviticus, we read when an Israelite was healed of a skin disease a cleansing ceremony would be held, which included sprinkled water upon the healed.[9] But it is probably Ezekiel’s prophecy of Israel’s restoration to their land, following the Babylonian captivity, that contains the most direct connection with John’s baptism. God said through Ezekiel,

I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them. And the nations will know that I am the LORD, declares the Lord GOD, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes. I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you (Ezek. 36:23-25).

The prophecy fits the timing of John’s ministry as well as the outward symbol his preaching, the sprinkling of water, a baptism of repentance.

We should note here that while similar, John’s baptism of repentance is not the same thing as Christian baptism. John’s baptism was preparatory, calling a people restored to their land to return to their God. Israel was not to presume their relationship with the Lord rested on their ethnicity or religiosity but upon God’s mercy. We hear this clearly in John’s challenge to the Pharisees and Sadducees not to presume their relationship with God rested in their ancestral descent from Abraham.[10] John’s baptism of repentance required individual acceptance that what is true of the Gentile is true for the Jew too:

            “None is righteous, no, not one;

                        no one understands;

                        no one seeks for God.

            All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;

                        no one does good,

                        not even one” (Rom. 3:10-12).

John’s baptism then was the symbolic means “to make ready for the Lord a people prepared” (Luke 1:17) for Christ’s coming.

In contrast, Christian baptism is not a following of Jesus’ example in being baptized but in obeying his command that we be baptized. When Jesus’ received John’s baptism of repentance he was identifying himself with the sinners he had come to save and faithfully obeying God’s command.[11] But following his resurrection, our Lord Jesus was given all authority in heaven and earth and so commissioned his church to go beyond Jerusalem to the nations, making disciples, and baptizing in the triune name of God.[12] Christian baptism then is a sacrament, that is an ordinance commanded by Christ, “in which the washing with water, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, signifies and seals our grafting into Christ, our receiving the benefits of the covenant of grace, and our engagement to be the Lord’s.”[13] This is also helpful when we consider that the sprinkled waters of John’s baptism were preparatory for what was to come, specifically Christ and kingdom.

The forerunner … who prepared the way.

One of the refreshing characteristics of John the Baptist, I think, is he knew his place. He knew that he was not God’s gift to the world but one chosen to prepare the way of the one who is. His life was characterized by bold preaching and humble living, famously confessing near the end of his life, “[Christ] must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30). His earthly ministry ended not with fanfare but beheading, the result of Herod’s frivolous party favor. [14]

Compared to the likes of Caesar, John’s life seems hardly worth remembering. But from Jesus’ perspective, “among those born of women there [was] no one greater than John the Baptist” (Matt. 11:11). Why? Because, his greatness was not in himself but in the one he ran before.

He was, as Isaiah prophesied,

The voice of one crying in the wilderness:

                        ‘Prepare the way of the Lord,

            make his paths straight.

                        Every valley shall be filled,

            and every mountain and hill shall be made low,

                        and the crooked shall become straight,

            and the rough places shall become level ways,

                        and all flesh shall see the salvation of God’ (4-6).

He preached where God put him, even the wilderness. He prepared a people, calling them to repent of their sins. He pointed to the salvation of God in the person of Jesus Christ, salvation not only for the Jew but “all flesh,” from every tribe, tongue, and nation.

And it is in this salvific sense that we see the greatness of John’s ministry, because just as he fulfilled Ezekiel’s prophecy of cleansing through the symbolic sprinkled waters of  baptism[15] so he prepared a people for the one who would make them clean forever. The Lord said through Ezekiel, “I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules” (Ezek. 36:26-28). And what God promised through Ezekiel and prepared the way through John, he gives through faith in Jesus, a new heart to love the Lord and his abiding presence to obey him. And it is through that forerunner that by God’s grace we run to Jesus, who lived that we may not die, who died that we may always live, who resurrected that we may have life in him forever.

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[1] Unless referenced otherwise, all Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version (Wheaton: Crossway Bibles, 2001).

[2] Luke 1:5-25

[3] Matt. 3:4

[4] Norval Geldenhuys, The Gospel of Luke (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1951), 134-135.

[5] Isa. 55:8-9

[6] Luke 3:7-9

[7] Q. 87, Andrew Green, Sasko Nezamutdinov, Ben Preston, The Illustrated Westminster Shorter Catechism (Fearn: Christian Focus Publications, 2022), 75.

[8] Lev. 8:6

[9] Lev. 14.

[10] Matt. 3:9

[11] Matt. 3:13-17

[12] Matt. 28:18-20

[13] Q. 94, Andrew Green, Sasko Nezamutdinov, Ben Preston, The Illustrated Westminster Shorter Catechism (Fearn: Christian Focus Publications, 2022), 85.

[14] Matt. 14:3-12

[15] Ezek. 36:25