Title: Jesus More Precious Than John
Contents
The text is from John 1:19-28
Then John said, “Who are you? What role did you play? How did you rate it?”
First, John's family is a priestly family. At that time, he was born as the son of a priest in Zacharias (Luke 1:5). Both his father and mother were descendants of Aaron and were of a priestly family. At that time, the priestly family was the best family in the nation of Israel. Moreover, John was born when his father, the priest Zacharias, was offering sacrifices to God, and he heard the news of conception by an angel of God. The baby (John) jumped for joy. (I was filled with the Holy Spirit from my womb).
Young sisters need to pray a lot when they have a baby or after having it. When a mother who has conceived a fetus to be filled with the Holy Spirit prays, the fetus says that it is good, praises it, runs around, and reads the Bible, and it should grow under the positive spiritual influence.
Second, John did not follow the name of his father, who was Zacharias, but he took the name of John, which was given to him by an angel, and he went the way of a prophet. Jesus also referred to John as “the law and the prophets until the days of John” (Luke 16:16), referring to the last of the prophets who prophesied about the coming Jesus. John gave the baptism of repentance (Mark 1:4). Because his role was to baptize through repentance, his nickname was changed to John the Baptist. What is important for Christians is repentance and longing for the Lord who will come again. We must tithe and obey the Word.
Third, John was popular. People thought, ‘Is he the Messiah?’, and the religious leaders sent people to confirm him, and thousands came to John to repent and be baptized. Not only that, even after John the Baptist's death, King Herod, who killed him, heard of Jesus' great power and said that John was alive. He respected John while he was alive, and he had respect for him even after he died. If you look at the content of the Bible that John mentioned about Jesus, “1) Testify that Jesus is the Christ (John 1:20) ② Testify that Jesus is the way (John 1:23) ③ Jesus is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit (Mark 1:8) ④Jesus is the Master.” The great man of a priestly family, respected and followed by the people, and feared even by the king himself, is the voice of the wilderness preparing the way of the Lord who came to this earth only for Jesus. It shows how much more precious Jesus is than himself by saying that he can't even afford it.
Jesus Himself became the Word and came among us. We should respect and follow Jesus more than the Jews did and respected John. May our lives be filled with Jesus.