WHO JOHN WAS AND WAS NOT

There are so much in scripture that is glossed over; even things that Jesus said. Today, we will look at what Matthew wrote about what Jesus said about his cousin, John, called “The Baptist.”

⁹ But what went you out for to see? A prophet? yes, I say unto you, “and more than a prophet.¹⁰ For this is he, of whom it is written, ‘Behold, I send my messenger before your face, which shall prepare your way before you.’ ¹¹ Verily I say unto you, ‘Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist: notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.’” (Mat 11:9-11)

 Jesus asked if they thought that John was a prophet. John wrote about what John said of himself. The conversation went like this: 

¹⁹ And this is the record of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?

²⁰ And he confessed, and denied not; but confessed, “I am not the Christ.”

 ²¹ And they asked him, “What then?”

“Are you Elias?” And he saith, “I am not.”

“Are you that prophet?” And he answered, “No.”

 ²² Then said they unto him, “Who are you? that we may give an answer to them that sent us.”

“What say you of yourself?” (John 1:19-22)

 John was being interrogated by the priests and Levites. There had been many men who had claimed to be the Messiah. Perhaps they thought John was just another crazy man, making that claim. In fact, a schizophrenic person often suffers delusions of grandeur. John dispelled that rumor.

There were always those in scripture who would try to make a name for themselves. Most notable were those in the days of Noah and soon after when those who built the tower of Babylon did so for that very reason.

John was John… a man of no high self-estimation. He was not there to make a name for himself but to spread the good news about Jesus, “He it is, who coming after me is preferred before me, whose shoe's latchet I am not worthy to unloose” (John 1:27).

John was meek. He was not suffering from low self-esteem but high Christ-esteem. He was saying, I do not measure up to Jesus, so please make no comparison! John’s estimation of himself was true. He had a realistic viewpoint of himself.

He would be the ‘groom,’ cleansing the flesh with baptism, but when the real ‘Groom’ came, he would wash with Holy Water that flowed from Himself — ‘Living Water.’

John was a revelator like the other John; he was saying that water baptism is the preparation of the flesh for the real Baptism of the Holy Ghost — the one baptism… “One Lord, one faith, one baptism…” (Ephes 4:5). He was not the Lord, he was not the one in whom to have faith, and his was not the efficacious baptism!

Who was John, then? Not “Elias (Elijah). He was in heaven, residing in another realm. A whirlwind took him there. The Jews had thought that Elijah had returned, but John was not even Elijah. No, Elijah failed the test of a ‘prophet.’ Just what is a prophet?

A prophet (prophetes) is a spokesman, or mouthpiece of God. There had been many prophets, but now Jesus would speak for Himself.

According to the other John, the Word had become flesh, and that person was not John the Baptist! Jesus would speak for Himself, and John would merely prepare for Him the Way (Mat 11:10). Hence, Jesus said that John was a ‘messenger’ (angelos), whose root word (ago) means “to lead the way.”

John was sent to world to direct people toward Jesus. Zacharias was a priest and his wife, Elizabeth, a ‘daughter’ of the high priest Aaron in the sense that she was his progeny.

Like Sarai long before, Elizabeth was barren. She perhaps had no reproductive organs or at least no ova. A woman is usually born with all the eggs (follicles) that she would ever have. God had a plan for her! She would, at a minimum, have no eggs to make children.

Speaking, apparently of the future, in the days of King Jehoiakim, the Word of the Lord came unto Jeremiah. “Before I formed you in the belly I knew you; and before you came forth out of the womb, I sanctified you, and I ordained you a prophet unto the nations” (Jer 1:7).

God knew Jeremiah before he was formed in the womb. He would be the spokesman who would call the Jews to return to God.

Could it be that the Word was also foretelling the coming of John the Baptist as well? He often used present events to foreshadow future events.

Of course, John was not Jeremiah; he was dead. However, he was an antitype of Jeremiah.

God knew John before John was formed in the womb and the fact that Elizabeth was barren meant that God Himself placed John in the ‘vessel’ of Elizabeth. She was merely a surrogate who carried, not the genes of Zachariah, but the very Genes of God. He was not the Word, as John wrote of Jesus, but the ‘conductor’ of the Word, and as an angelos, John was a messenger from the invisible realm.

John was born of the Spirit of God and needed no baptism because he had received the Holy Spirit while he was still in the womb of Elizabeth.

John, like Samson long before, was born a Nazarite, being clean from the moment of birth. He was washed in the Spirit, so John would not be baptized in water. His own cleansing was the ‘one baptism’ and it was of the Holy Spirit from the ‘One Lord’ which was not himself.

In that John was conceived in the same manner as Isaac, makes him an antitype of Isaac as well. In fact, John was the antitype of many of the patriarchs; from Noah, to Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob, and onward, including Jeremiah. True prophets are ‘angels’ in the sense that each were born for a certain purpose, and all the prophets were to point people toward the Messiah (the Christ).

Jesus validated that John was the ‘conductor’ to Himself and a prophet when He said that John “shall prepare your way before you.”

John’s way was the cleansing of the flesh to prepare for the cleansing of the soul. Washing with water was in preparation for the reception of the Holy Spirit.

This is important; John only washed with water to make the flesh presentable. Jesus cleansed the inward person. John’s was only with moving water in the Jordan; Jesus washed with Living Water from His own belly!

The Way of Jesus was spelled out to the woman at the well who was after the deep water, Jesus said to her, “If thou knew the gift of God, and who it is that says to you, ‘Give me to drink; you would have asked of Him, and He would have given to you living water” (John 4:10), of course from the belly of Jesus (John 7:38).

“Belly’ (koilia) therein is the lower womb. Jesus was polite. He would imbue Christians with Hise Divine ‘Semen,’ not by coitus, but by His Spirit. He would reproduce His Image to mankind in the same manner that the Father (The Lord God) had done with Adam.

God breathed on Adam and that Divine Breath entered Adam via his “nostrils” or literally his forehead. Hence, rebirth (“born again;” John 3:7) is not sexual in nature but of the mind. No wonder that sinners must be persuaded to become Christians.

Hence, since our thoughts are not God’s Thoughts, (Isa 55:8), then the seed of God is planted by His Thoughts becoming our thoughts. If your thoughts are not the Thoughts of God, then you have not been engendered from the LORD GOD above. Therefore, falling away is when our early Thoughts of God to whom we have affection, gradually lose affection, and the adopted child of God defects (apostasia) just like with any youngster seeks emancipation from the authority of his or her progenitor.

There were some important points made by Jesus and I hope by me as well: 

1.      Water baptism is only for preparation.

2.      Water baptism cleanses the flesh alone.

3.      Spiritual ‘baptism’ is by the Holy Ghost of Jesus.

4.      Rebirth is not of water but of the Spirit.

5.      John was not the Christ but a pointer to the Way of Christ.

6.      Jesus alone can engender. John could only cleanse the ‘vessel.’

7.      John was meek but Jesus is meeker.

8.      John has no power to change, but Jesus has that Power in His Spirit.

9.      John was born of the Spirit; Jesus was the Spirit in the genetics of John.

10.  Jesus is the Word that came before John. John was the mouthpiece who called mankind to the Word. That Jesus was before him may mean that Jesus was in him.

11.  Jesus is Truth; John pointed the way to find the truth.

12.  John was not ‘born again’ but born once in the Spirit from his mother’s womb.

13.  John was a peculiar and chosen vessel from long ago to introduce the Word.

14.  The Word was the ‘vessel’ that carried the Genes of God.

15.  And even much more if you think about it; for instance, John was a ‘Nazarite,’ but Jesus a ‘Nazarene.’ A Nazarene to this day in the Holy Land means ‘Christian.’ John was a Nazarite who would remain clean even as he was born. He was not shaped in iniquity like David (Psalm 51:5). Jesus was the Nazarene (Nazoraios) — ‘the guarded One,’ ostensibly guarded by the Father and all the prophets.

(picture credit; Bower Arts)