Lesson 674

(Lesson 674)(06-24-13) The next appearance of a variation of the term "baptize" is in Luke 3:1-4, "Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judaea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of Ituraea and of the region of Trachonitis, and Lysanias the tetrarch of Abilene, Annas and Caiaphas being the high priests, the word of God came unto John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness. And he came into all the country about Jordan, preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins; As it is written in the book of the words of Esaias the prophet, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight."

I have included the extra verses in this quote because the first two establish the historical time line and the context within which John's "baptism" occurred. Verse three provides the actual usage of the term. The last verse explains what the term indicates in this usage.
The above quote clearly establishes that John the Baptist came out of the desert with a divine purpose, "PREACHING" the "BAPTISM OF REPENTANCE".

It should be first noted that to "preach" something is to vocally proclaim it's truthfulness or inevitability, therefore, since water immersion is a mechanical function it CANNOT be literally "preached". It could be said that John was "preaching" an order that those Jews should be immersed in water, and in a technical way, that would be correct. John did indeed perform, or administer water immersions for the purpose of ceremonially cleansing those Jews in preparation for the coming. However, that is NOT what John was divinely inspired to "preach"! John was explicitly sent to "preach" the coming of Jesus Christ, the Messiah, "Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make His paths straight".

The word "preaching" is defined by Strong's bible dictionary as: "to be a herald, to officiate as a herald, to proclaim after the manner of a herald, always with the suggestion of formality, gravity and an authority which must be listened to and obeyed, to publish, proclaim openly: something which has been done used of the public proclamation of the gospel and matters pertaining to it, made by John the Baptist, by Jesus, by the apostles and other Christian teachers."

To "herald" is to announce publicly some specific action, or the coming of some special event. In the case of today's lesson, John was "heralding", or proclaiming (preaching) the message he was fore-ordained to teach, that being the coming of Jesus, the Messiah.

As was prophesied in Isaiah, John's only commission was to "prepare ye the way of the Lord", he was to tell the Jews that Jesus, the Savior was coming, and to prepare them for that event. According to Maimonides, a twelfth century rabbi and probably the most commonly respected authority on Jewish law and tradition, before entering into or taking on ANY religious event, a practicing Jew is required to be ceremonially bathed in water. It is this same traditional water immersion, (baptism) John administered for those Jews who believed the Messiah was coming, and to prepare them for that event.

It is clear that John's message was to teach that the Messiah was coming, he was also to ceremonially cleanse the willing for that coming by administering water immersions.

The "baptism of John" includes, but is NOT limited to, water "baptism".

NOTE: tomorrow's lesson will apply to this same scripture.~