#7 Lu 1:80 THE EARLY LIFE OF JOHN THE
BAPTIST
Introduction:
In our text last Sunday Zacharias uttered a prophecy
which spoke chiefly about the Christ. He spoke very briefly
about his son, John, and said that John
would prepare the way
for the ministry of the Christ. He said that John would
prepare the way for the ministry of Jesus
by proclaiming the
way of salvation. John would preach repentance of sin and
faith in Jesus Christ.
Our text today does not deal with the ministry of John.
Rather it deals with his prior to his
ministry. Luke does
not go into any detail concerning this
period of time in
John's life. In one brief statement, he covers all of that
period of time from the infancy of John to
the beginning of
his ministry. In this one brief statement, Luke
tells us three things about the early life
of John the
Baptist.
I.
The physical growth of John
Note the text, "And the child grew..." The first thing
that Luke said about John is that he
grew. That is, he grew
physically. He began as a little infant and grew. His
growth must have been somewhat like the
growth of any other
child.
He went through all the stages of growth that any
other child would go through.
I do not mean that John went through all the behavior
patterns that other children go
through. John was influenced
by the Holy Spirit from his infancy and so
his behavior must
have been somewhat different from other
children even from
the first.
But he did go through the same stages of physical
growth as others.
This must have been a joyous time for the Zacharias and
Elisabeth.
They had missed out on the joys of parenthood in
the earlier years of their life. It was almost certain that
this would be their only child. Therefore they cherished him
all the more. They poured out all their
love on this one and
only child. They cherished every moment they had with
him.
Even when he cried that must have been
sweet music to their
ears.
When little John took his first step, they must have
been just about the proudest parents in
the whole land. When
he cut that first tooth, they must have
again swelled with
pride.
When he uttered that first "Momma" and "Dadda" they
must have thought that he was the smartest
little fellow in
the world.
And when they had him bathed and all cleaned up,
they must have thought that he was the
cutest baby in they
had ever seen. Come to think of, they must have nearly as
proud of Little John as your were of your's when your first
child was small.
There might have been a few advantages of having this
child in their old age rather than in
their young years, but
we can be sure that there were at least
some disadvantages.
One of those disadvantages was that they
did not have much
hope of getting to see any
grand-children. Luke does not
tell us when Zacharias and Elisabeth died,
but there is a
strong probability that they never lived
to seen their son
begin his ministry.
What they would do in those early years that John was in
their home was to teach him about God and
teach him the will
of God for his life. No doubt they told him about the visit
that the angel of God had paid to
Zacharias while he was in
the
special name that was given to him and
what that name means.
The name, John, means "God is
gracious" and they would want
him to know just how gracious God had been
to them and how He
had been gracious to the whole nation of
another child by Mary, Elisabeth's
cousin. They would want
him to know that he was to be a special
servant of God who
would prepare the way for the ministry of
Jesus. Zacharias
would tell John about the prophecy that
he, himself, had
received from the Holy Spirit of God
revealing that John
would preach repentance to the people and
that he would
preach faith in Christ to them. They would tell John that
under ordinary conditions he would follow
in the steps of his
father, Zacharias, and be a priest in the
temple at
adult, he would go to school and learn to
serve as a priest.
Then he would have to pass a test to see
if he could qualify
before he would be approved to serve as a
priest. But
because of the special calling of God,
John would never serve
as a priest. Instead he would preach to the people and
inform them about the coming
Messiah-king. He would preach,
"Repent for the kingdom of heaven is
at hand." Or in other
words, he would say, "Repent for the
King that God promised
through the prophets of old is at
hand."
I said that the parents of John, at their age, would
have little hope of living to see any
grand-children. It is
doubtful that they lived to see John get
grown. I do know
this, if they lived to see him as a
teenager they must have
been pretty feeble by then. It is highly doubtful that lived
to see him go beyond his teens.
II.
The spiritual growth of John
Note the text again, "...and waxed strong in spirit..."
Just as John grew in physical stature and
physical strength,
even so he grew in spiritual
strength. Just as his physical
growth did not happen overnight, even so
his spiritual growth
did not happen overnight. He did not go to bed one night as
a weak spiritual baby and get up the next
morning as a
spiritually fully matured strong young
man. Little by
little, he grew in spiritual
understanding. No doubt, the
things his godly parents taught him played
an important part
in his spiritual understanding. They taught him about God;
they taught him about the coming
Messiah-king. They told him
about the priesthood and all the spiritual
lessons that could
be learned from it. They taught him the word of God as
written in Old Testament Scripture.
But there was more to the spiritual growth of
John the
Baptist than just what his parents and
others had taught him.
As John began to grow from one stage to
another, he turned to
the Lord and sought the Lord for
himself. Being taught about
Jesus by one's parents is great, but if
that is all that a
child ever knows about the Lord, he will
never be a spiritual
person.
One thing a child must determine for himself is whether
or not he believes what he has been taught
about God. Does
he personally believe that God is
real? Is he fully aware
that he is a sinner in the sight of
Almighty God? Does he
repent of his own sin and seek pardon at
the hands of a
gracious God? Let me tell you this about John: If John had
never seen himself as a sinner and if he
had never repented
of his own sin, he would have never been
able to preach
repentance to the people with such great
conviction. I am
just as convinced as I can be that John
had a personal
experience with God in that he turned to
God in repentance
of his sin and he personally asked the
Lord to pardon him
from all his sin.
Likewise, John must have placed his faith in the coming
Christ.
If he was going to preach the message about the
coming Christ with any conviction he must
have reached the
place in life when he personally trusted
the coming Christ as
his own Savior. When John preached and said that Christ is
the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of
the world, I am
convinced that he had already trusted the
Christ to take away
his own guilt of sin. John had a personal experience with
God in repentance of his own sin and a
personal trusting
faith in the Christ.
It was his own personal experience of grace with God
that was John's first giant step forward
in growing into
spiritual maturity. After that, he no doubt had many
experiences with the Lord. In the wilderness he walked with
the Lord.
He talked with the Lord many times.
He sought the
will of God for his own life. He began to grow in knowledge
of the work that God had in store for him
to do and John was
surrendered to task of doing what God had
called him to do.
He was willing to do what God had called
him to do. He was
actually anxious to do it. Nobody could have been as zealous
as John in preaching if he had been
unwilling to preach.
III.
The separated life of John
Let us note the text again, "...and was in the deserts
till the day of his showing unto
separated life that John lived. Let me first point out to
you that the Greek work that here is
translated "desert" does
not necessarily mean "a dry, arid
place." Rather it means "a
deserted place," "an uninhabited
place," or at "a sparsely
inhabited place."
That is exactly the kind of place that John grew up in.
John was not a city boy. John was small-town boy, a country
boy.
Back in verse 39 of this first chapter of Luke when
Mary went to the home of Zacharias and
Elisabeth, it was said
that she "...went into the hill
country..." Actually she
went into a small city or village where
Zacharias and
Elisabeth lived. But the point that I am making is that on
all sides of that little town or village,
there was lots of
wilderness. John could go almost any direction from his
home
and be in the wilderness and that is
exactly what he did.
John did not go to the big city as a young
man and get
involved in big city life. John did not go to Jerusalem and
attend the school of the priests. John did not indulge in
the night-life that many of his own age
were involved in. To
put it in a modern setting, John did not
join the local
football team or play tennis or any other
sports that might
have been popular in his day. The closer John grew toward
adulthood, the more time John spent alone
in the hills. In
Matthew 3:4 we read, "And the same
John had his raiment of
camel's hair, and a leathern girdle about
his loins; and his
meat was locusts and wild honey." He
dressed in rugged
clothes that could stand the wear and tear
of the wilderness.
He ate the foods that were available to
him there in the
wilderness. He stayed many days in the wilderness eating
locusts and wild honey without returning
to his home in the
village.
I have no way of knowing but I strongly suspect
that after the death of his parents he
never did return to
the city for any extended length of time.
As for as the ministry of John was concerned, the
isolated life that he was living helped a
great deal to
prepare him for the work that he was to
do. John did not see
things the way most other religious
leaders of
them.
He was not trained in the ways of the priests of that
day.
He did not think like they did.
The priests had a
tendency to think in terms of what was
best for the cause of
the priests. John thought in terms of what was best in he
cause of Christ. John did not think like the average family
of his day. They would think in terms of family finance
and
the physical well being of the family
members. John thought
in terms of on's
spiritual condition. John could see that
the salvation of one's soul is a lot more
important than
bread on the table and a regular paycheck
coming in. John
saw thing different than the socially
minded of his day.
They would think in terms of one's
standing in the community.
John thought in terms of one's standing
with God. Many would
think of living their life to please
others about them. John
would think in terms of living to please
God.
Yet the time would come when John would no longer live
an isolated life. Not that John would leave the wilderness
and turn to city life. Rather the people of the cities would
turn to John. As people would pass through the wilderness
and come in contact with John, they would
talk with him and
they were very much impressed by what he
had to say. Pretty
soon great crowds of people would be
flocking out of the
cities to go out into the wilderness to
hear John preach. By
living an isolated life he was prepared
for service to God
and service to the people. But it was in his contact with
the people that he was best able to serve
both God and the
people.
IV.
Some practical lessons for us from the life of John
Let me point you to a practical lesson for our own
lives from what we learn about John the
Baptist and his life.
First, let me point out to you the
importance of parents
teaching their children about God. We can take our children
to church and we should on a regular
basis. We can enroll
our children in
children or grand-children will be
enrolled in our's starting
tomorrow.
But there is nothing in the world that can take
the place of you as a parent telling your
children about your
experiences with God and about your great
faith in the Christ
as your own personal Savior. I hope that every week you who
have children at home will take some time
to read the Word of
God to them and to teach them about the
Lord from your own
lips.
Furthermore we can learn a very valuable lesson about
living a separated live. John lived a separated life. It is
in living a life that is separated from
the world that we are
best prepared for service to God. We cannot serve God as we
should if we partake of all the ways of
the world. If we
think like the people of the world, if we
participate in the
things that the people of the world participate in, if we
do
the same things as the people of the
world, we cannot very
effectively serve God. We must not seek to be different from
the world just for the sake of being
different. We must be
different because we seek to please God in
our lives and we
must be different because we have a
different set of values.
In I John
things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the
love of the Father is not in him."
There is another lesson that we need to learn from John.
We need to learn that when God calls us to
a special work
that we are to surrender to that
calling. Somewhere down the
line I am going to speak to somebody that
God is calling to
preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. I do not know where or
when.
I do not know who it is going to be.
But I know that
somewhere down the line I am going to be
preaching and
through the message that I preach God is
going to touch the
heart of some young man and the call of
God to preach is
going to be just as real to him as the
call was to John the
Baptist.
It is going to be just as real as if the Lord were
to speak out loud and say, "I wasn't
you to preach my word."
Now let me caution you about one thing.
I am certainly
not trying to persuaded you to preach if
God has not
definitely called you. I would say, "Do not attempt to
preach unless you are sure that God has
called you to
preach." I am just saying that if and when that time
comes
that you know for sure that God has called
you to preach,
then follow the example that John
followed. Surrender to the
ministry, prepare for the ministry, and
preach.
For most people, it is safe to say that you are not
going to experience a call to the
ministry. Some of you
perhaps are not even saved. To each one of you who are
unsaved I can say, "God is calling
you to salvation." It is
up to you to answer that call. You need to do as John the
Baptist did. You need to repent of your sin and trust in
Jesus Christ as your Savior. Then after you are save you
need to follow the Lord in Scriptural
baptism and unite with
one of the Lord's churches.
There may be someone here this morning who is ready to
say "Yes" to God's call. You may be ready to say "Wes" to
God's call to salvation "Yes" to
God's call to be baptized or
"Yes" to God's call to church
membership or 'Yes" to God's
call to preach. We are going to have an invitation song at
this time and invite you to come. While we stand and
reverently sing, won't you come?