Why God Prepared John the Baptist and His Role | Christian Sermons 16
Everyone, You must understand the ministry of John the Baptist in order to accurately know the truth of salvation — that Jesus blotted out all the sins of the world through water (baptism) and blood — and to be born again as God’s holy children through faith.
In his first book ‘HAVE YOU TRULY BEEN BORN AGAIN OF WATER AND THE SPIRIT?’ and second book ‘RETURN TO THE GOSPEL OF THE WATER AND THE SPIRIT,’ the servant of God, Pastor Paul C. Jong, clearly testifies — using the Scriptures from both the Old and New Testaments as written in the Bible — about the role of John the Baptist and the reason why Jesus was baptized by him.
Volumes 1 and 2 of Paul C. Jong’s New Christian Book Series
By visiting The New Life Mission website, you can download the Word of God in various languages as free e-books, audiobooks, and bilingual books. You can also purchase the books directly through Amazon to add them to your collection.
Today’s blog content is excerpted from Pastor Paul C. Jong’s first sermon book, “HAVE YOU TRULY BEEN BORN AGAIN OF WATER AND THE SPIRIT?”
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You must understand the ministry of John the Baptist and the ministry of Jesus to receive true salvation.
In Malachi 3:1, it is written, “Behold, I send My messenger, and he will prepare the way before Me.” You have to read the Bible carefully. Why did God send His messenger before Jesus? Why was John the Baptist born 6 months before Jesus?
There is a section in the Old Testament on the ministry of the high priest Aaron. Aaron was the elder brother of Moses. He and his sons were anointed as priests by God. The other Levites worked under them, bringing them assorted utensils, mixing the batter for the bread and such, while the sons of Aaron offered the sacrifice inside the holy tabernacle.
So the sons of Aaron were anointed to share the equal amount of work among themselves, but on the Day of Atonement, the tenth day of the seventh month, the high priest alone offered the sacrifice of atonement for his people.
In Luke 1:5, there is a story about the lineage of John the Baptist. We have to understand correctly about this messenger of God to understand Jesus correctly. We tend to think a lot about Jesus, but ignore much about John the Baptist, who came before Him. I would like to help you understand.
‘The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. As it is written in the Prophets: “Behold, I send My messenger before Your face, who will prepare Your way before You”’ (Mark 1:1–2).
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The gospel of heaven always starts with John the Baptist.
When we understand well about John the Baptist, we can clearly understand and believe in the gospel of the redemption of Jesus. It is similar to listening to the ambassadors we have dispatched all over the world in order to understand the situations of all nations. When we know about John the Baptist, we can understand the redemption of God very well.
What a pity it is, however, that so many Christians these days do not see the importance of John. God didn’t send John the Baptist because He was bored and had nothing else to do. All the four Gospels of the New Testament talk about John the Baptist before talking about the redemption of Jesus.
But the evangelists of today ignore John the Baptist completely and tell people that just believing in Jesus is enough to be saved. They are in fact leading people to live as sinners all their lives and end up in hell. If you just believe in Jesus without understanding the role of John the Baptist, Christianity becomes just another religion to you. How can you be redeemed of your sins if you do not know the truth? It is impossible.
So many people think that redemption lies in our faith in the Cross because Jesus died on the Cross for us. But if you only believe in the crucifixion without knowing the truth of the passing on of sins, no amount of faith will lead to complete redemption.
Therefore, God sent John the Baptist to let the world know how redemption was to be accomplished and how Jesus would take away the sins of the world. Only if we know the truth will we understand that Jesus is the Son of God who took all our sins on to Himself.
He tells us how he came to testify to the divinity of Jesus, and how people would not receive Him when the Light came down to this world. It is also testified in John 1 that John the Baptist was the one who prepared the gospel of redemption by baptizing Jesus Christ.
If we didn’t have the testimony of John the Baptist about redemption, how could we believe in Jesus? We have never seen Jesus, and when we come from different cultures and religions, how is it possible to believe in Jehovah?
Having such diverse religions throughout the world, how could we know Jesus Christ? How could we know that Jesus was in fact the Son of God who redeemed us by taking all the sins of the world upon Himself?
Therefore, we have to look into the Old Testament to find from the beginning the words of redemption and to come to know that Jesus is our Savior. We have to obtain the correct knowledge to believe correctly. There’s nothing we can do without true knowledge. In order to believe in Jesus and be saved, we have to know the gospel of the redemption that John the Baptist testified to and his role in it. To have complete faith in Christ, we have to know the truth about redemption.
Therefore, as Jesus said, “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32), we have to know the truth of redemption in Jesus.
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Various sermon books by Pastor Paul C. Jong in multiple languages
If you would like to read more of Rev. Paul C. Jong’s sermon books, please download free e-books and audiobooks (PDF, EPUB) translated into various languages from around the world at our The New Life Mission official website. These materials are freely provided for the true salvation of your soul. Feel free to click the link below and make use of them.
