John the Baptist - What All Christians Should Be

John the Baptist is a picture of what, we as Christians, should be. In Luke chapter 1 we read of God’s calling to the child of Zechariah and Elizabeth, who was called John.

Luke 1:76-79
And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace."

John was to be a prophet. But unlike many of the OT Prophets John was bringing a message, not of impending judgment in response to the sins of man, but as a prophet of the good news of the Messiah. He came preaching that there was a coming light and that light was Jesus. As Christians we are all called to this same mission; to proclaim Jesus as the light of the world and to share the good news of God’s grace as manifest in the Gospel.

Luke 1:80 tells us that as child John “grew and became strong in spirit.” As a child of God we, too, are to grow and become strong in spirit.

As John grew up he went to live in the wilderness until we read of him in Mark 1:4 which says that, “John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” Most of us spend time wandering in the wilderness before we come to Christ. But then when we accept Christ like John, we must come out proclaiming a baptism of repentance.

John was a strange fellow who “was clothed with camel's hair and wore a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey” as read of in Mark 1:6. As Christians we are to be a people who live in the world but are to be different from the world. If we are truly walking in the Spirit of God we will look different than the unsaved people around us. We may even find ourselves seen as odd as John appeared dressed in that crazy camel hair coat probably did.

Like John, we are to be a people of humility, recognizing Jesus is the one who deserves all the glory. Mark 1:7 is an example of John’s humility, “And he preached, saying, "After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie.”

And when we baptize people we must like John understand our role in their baptism. In Mark 1:8 John explains this saying, “I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit."

John knew his part and like him, Christians must do the same. We cannot save anyone. That is the work of God. We must share the truth as John did. We must speak of repentance and the need for recognition of our sin. We must point to Christ as the answer. Sometimes in our lives, like John, this speaking of the truth may bring us distress. John would die because he was willing to speak truth no matter the consequence. He was imprisoned and later beheaded because he was unafraid to share the truth of sin even to King Herod. Mark 6:18 tells us that “…John had been saying to Herod, "It is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife." Too often we fall into this trap of thinking we shouldn’t ever speak about sin and repentance but only about love. Then we wonder why our world is so full of sin. Real love speaks truth and some aren’t going to like it. John lost his head over this. Most Christians are afraid to even broach the topic of sin. This has weakened the church and hindered our prayers.

The life of John the Baptist is a picture of what we must become as Christians. We must be prophets in the sense of speaking out the Word of God. We must call for repentance and we must come out of our wilderness declaring the Gospel, even if people see us as odd, like John. We should baptize with water but let Christ baptize with the Spirit. We should be willing to die for the truth of God’s perfect law and confront sin without fear. We must become less and let Jesus become more. We don’t have to perform miracles; John didn’t need them, John 10:40-42 tells us that “Jesus went back across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing in the early days. Here he stayed and many people came to him. They said, "Though John never performed a miraculous sign, all that John said about this man was true." And in that place many believed in Jesus.” We simply need to say all that is true about Jesus. Stay faithful to that and many will believe in the Christ.