Prophet: John the Baptist

Although his formative years were lived in obscurity in the desert ( Luke 1:80 ), his public ministry ended nearly four hundred years of prophetic silence. John was that voice crying in the wilderness preparing the way for the coming Messiah ( Isa 40:3 ; Matt 3:3 ; Mark 1:2-3 ; Luke 3:3-6 ). Therefore, his ministry, in a sense, marked the culmination of the law and the prophets, heralding the advent of the kingdom of God ( Matt 11:12 ; Luke 16:16 ). John was truly a transitional figure, forming the link between the Old and New Testaments. 

The central theme of his ministry was, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near" ( Matt 3:2 ).He was called "The Baptist" because his practice was to baptize those who responded to the message. ( Matt 3:1 ; Mark 6:14 ; Luke 7:20 ). He was an end-times prophet and conducted his ministry with an urgency that demanded immediate action, teaching that judgment is at hand. The axe is laid to the roots and God will thoroughly purge his threshing floor ( Matt 3:10-12). 

John's lifestyle was as austere as his message. He was an ascetic living in the wilderness, clothed in camel hair and subsisting on locusts and wild honey ( Matt 3:4 ; Mark 1:6 ). Unlike Jesus, he expected people to come to him, rather than he going to them. He unflinchingly confronted the hypocrisy of the religious establishment ( Matt 3:7 ; Luke 3:7 ) and did not hesitate to expose the immorality of Herod, choosing to die a martyr's death rather than compromise his convictions ( Matt 14:3-12 ; Mark 6:17-29 ).

All of these characteristics portray John as a fiery prophet proclaiming the apocalyptic message of God. Indeed, Luke says that John came "in the spirit and power of Elijah" ( Luke1:17 ). Some contemporaries of John inquired if he were Elijah, but he flatly denied that he was Elijah reincarnated ( John 1:21; John 1:25 ). Nevertheless Jesus affirmed that Elijah must come first and that he had come in the person of John the Baptist ( Matt 17:11-13 ; Mark 9:12-13 ). Jesus acknowledged the central role that John played in God's plan of salvation. He was the greatest born among women because he had the privilege of pointing to the Lamb of God ( John 1:29-34 ).Yet as the last great prophet of the pre-Christian era, he was the least in the kingdom of God ( Matt 11:11; Luke 7:28).