When Jesus assigned John the title of the greatest prophet ever born to a woman, one might have expected a long and impressive list of supernatural miracles to be attached to John’s ministry. Amazingly, Scripture reveals that John the Baptizer never performed a miracle (John 10:41). The greatest prophet who ever lived had a ministry that only contained two main functions: preaching and baptizing. This message takes a look at three primary areas that characterized John’s verbal messaging. If he was the greatest prophet, and if his primary emphasis was preaching, we do well to become very acquainted with what the prophet spoke. His primary messages can be generally categorized with the three words: Repent, Religion and Revelation. Modern forerunners would do well to prioritize these three strands within the communication of their own ministries.
John’s Mighty Declarations
John 1:29-36
December 5, 2018 • Jeff Lyle
John’s Martyr’s Death
December 19, 2018 • Jeff Lyle
No other human life on the pages of scripture is quite like John the Baptist’s life. His birth was announced by the angel Gabriel. His life was the fulfillment of prophecy by Malachi and Isaiah. He introduced Jesus Christ as God’s son to the world. He intentionally shrank his own ministry and influence so that the mission of Jesus could take center-stage. In the end, John was thrown in prison for preaching righteousness, and in the prison he struggled with powerful doubts about Jesus. As we come to the last scene of his life, he does not speak a word. In full surrender to God’s plan, John passes from this world into the next as the first recorded Kingdom martyr in the New Testament. Let us learn, not only from how John lived, but how he died
John’s Moments of Doubt
December 12, 2018 • Jeff Lyle
"After John proclaimed Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away sin, his own ministry began to immediately and visibly decrease. As his followers became followers of Israel’s Messiah, John retained his ministry of proclamation and calling people to repent. When wicked Herod was rebuked for immorality by John, the angry ruler imprisoned him. Alone and isolated in a filthy cell, John revealed that he was merely human as he began to wrestle with doubts about Jesus. This message reveals the tenderness of God toward all believers when we enter our own moments of weakness, limitation and doubts. Jesus will not forsake us in the hour of our troubled soul."
John’s Missional Destiny
November 28, 2018 • Jeff Lyle
"When the fulness of time came about on earth, God determined to set in motion His eternal plan to rescue the human race from the consequences of sin and the clutches of the devil. The Father would send His only Son to come and deliver all of those who would turn to Him. Before Jesus appeared, however, God graciously sent an alarm throughout Israel in the form of John the Baptizer, the forerunner to the Messiah. Jesus declared that John was the greatest prophet ever born. His ministry went up like a signal flare and then faded into the shadows with the same quickness that it began. What can we learn from the ministry of John? His life is not merely one of history. John was the human hinge upon which the door between the Old Covenant and New Covenant swung. Just as the Father sent the forerunner before the first coming of Jesus, we must expect to see this type of ministry repeated as the Second Coming of Jesus approaches. God is raising up forerunners in this generation with callings similar to what He assigned to John. What exactly should we be looking for as the time approaches?