A few of weeks ago I left you with the question, “What do you think John the Baptist witnessed that his testimony would be credible and reliable?
To witness is to experience an action, an event as it happened. We know there are variations of experience through sight, through sound, and most definitely through relationship.
What did John the Baptist see that would qualify him as a witness? We know he saw the dove come down from heaven and rest on Jesus at His baptism. However, John was already proclaiming the coming Messiah long before this time.
What did John hear that would qualify him as a witness? The culture John grew up in was big on oral tradition. Experiences of their people were an inheritance for the upcoming generations. As Luke stated in his letter to Theophilus, “Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the Word.” (Luke 1:1-2)
These were the eyewitness testimonies that kept their hope alive of the coming Messiah, even during lengthy periods of silence from God. The people knew the day of their salvation, their liberation from captivity was coming and each generation watched with hopeful expectation that they would live to see the day these words would be fulfilled.
These eyewitness accounts were over four hundred years old and hardly qualified John the Baptist as a reliable source, yet he spoke with the kind of authority and confidence you expect a key witness to have. Which leads one to question, “Who did John know and what was the relationship?”
Scripture not only preserves the answer, it also gives us the background and John’s story begins as all of our stories do, with our parents.
Luke 1 captures this amazing story that I encourage you to read. For now, take notice of verse 15, “for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born.”
Which is harder to believe? That John would never taste alcohol or that he would be filled with the Holy Spirit before he was born?
Notice Scripture says that John will be filled with the Holy Spirit before he is born. It does not indicate that his mother, Elizabeth will be filled because her baby was. Elizabeth doesn’t actually experience Holy Spirit until Mary came to visit. The moment she heard Mary’s voice, baby John leapt in her womb and then she was filled with the Holy Spirit. What do you make of that?
Stay with me here as I attempt to share my response.
Psalm 139 is familiar to many. “For You created my inmost being, you knit me together in my mother’s womb.” Have you ever wondered what a baby being knit together by the hand of God experiences? Every artist puts a piece of themselves in their painting, their sculpture, their design. Ever wonder what piece of God, what character trait of God He has woven into you?
For John, it was to prepare the way for the coming Messiah, and he began doing this before he was born. Before his father, Zechariah prophesied over him, before his parents followed God’s instructions to raise him in the wilderness and long before the people heard his message and took notice. John was proclaiming the coming of Jesus Christ, the Messiah, from the womb!
By the witness of Holy Spirit in him, he leapt for joy in his mother’s womb! At the sound of Mary’s voice, Elizabeth’s baby who was in his sixth month of gestation, leapt.
At six months gestation, a baby has fully formed lungs, a unique set of fingerprints, can focus on and recognize sounds outside of the womb. How fantastic is that!?
When baby John leapt for joy, Elizabeth was filled with Holy Spirit and gave voice to confirm the prophecy Gabriel gave to Mary.
The power and witness of Holy Spirit made John’s testimony credible and reliable. A testimony that John carried with him, literally, all the days of his life.
“For no word from God will ever fail.”
Luke 1:37 NIV
