John the Herald of the King

Paul and Barnabas, on the first missionary journey of the Apostle Paul, proclaimed the gospel on the island of Cyprus and in the southern part of the province of Galatia, which included the cities of Pisidian Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra (Acts 13–14). Most likely, Paul’s letter to the Galatians was addressed to the churches planted in those cities and throughout the region of Galatia. Today’s passage continues the account of Paul’s preaching in Pisidian Antioch, a sermon that summarizes the message that the Apostle delivered in his travels.

Having set the historical context for the coming of the Savior in the covenant that God made with Israel and then with its greatest old covenant king, David (13:16b–23), Paul in Acts 13:24–25 moves forward about one thousand years after David to the first century AD, when the promise in the Davidic covenant began to be fulfilled. Before detailing the ministry of Jesus, however, Paul describes the ministry of John the Baptist. In the first century, many Jews knew of that prophet’s ministry and respected him greatly. Some even held him to be the final prophet whom God sent to mankind, a belief that continues today in Mandaeism, a Jewish-gnostic religious group with tens of thousands of members worldwide. It makes sense that Paul would talk about the ministry of John the Baptist in the synagogue in Pisidian Antioch. His audience would have heard of John and may have even regarded him too highly. John the Baptist, of course, holds a key place in the history of salvation as the herald of the Messiah, but he cannot be exalted above the Savior. As Paul notes in Acts 13:23–25, John pointed beyond himself to Jesus Christ, the promised Son of David.

John’s task was to prepare the ancient Jews for the coming of their King, which he did by proclaiming “a baptism of repentance.” The baptism of John is not identical to the baptism that Christ instituted (Matt. 28:18–20), but there are similarities, including the fact that baptism must be administered in the context of the preaching of the Word of God. This is so because the sign is not self-explanatory; we cannot understand its true meaning without instruction. John Calvin comments on today’s passage: “We must note the phrase, that he preached baptism. Whereby we are taught that the sacraments are then rightly administered, when doctrine is joined with the visible figure . . . because the sign is vain without doctrine.”