John the Baptist, Anna and Forerunners in the Bible

Preparing the Way of the Lord Before He Returns

This video (originally recorded in December 2020), explores the concept of “forerunners” in the Bible, focusing on characters like Anna and John the Baptist.

Key Takeaways

• God always chooses to partner with humanity to bring forth His purposes on earth.

• Forerunners play a crucial role in preparing the way for Jesus’ second coming.

• Prayer, fasting, and intercession are essential practices for forerunners.

• The church is called to be a prophetic people, giving birth to God's purposes and proclaiming the name of Jesus until He returns.

Video Transcript

Presence Pioneers (00:00.11)

course, Jesus is the main character, but I love the fact that when, when God wanted to come to the earth, that he decided to do it in partnership with other people, with humanity. Um, I love Mary and Joseph and Zachariah and Elizabeth and Anna and Simeon. There's all these characters, especially when you look at the book of Luke, which is what we're going to mostly be looking at today, that God chose to cooperate with these willing vessels to bring forth his dream. He didn't just plop a person supernaturally.

into the earth. He didn't just manifest himself with God in the flesh, but he chose to do it all in cooperation and partnership with people. And there were those who were acting as forerunners, which is what we want to talk about today, who are connecting to God's purposes and preparing the way for him to come. And just like Jesus came before, he's coming again. And there's going to be forerunners on the earth that the body of Christ, you and I are going to be.

acting as forerunners, preparing the way for Jesus to come again. And so we can look at these characters like Anna and John the Baptist that we're going to look at today and we can get an understanding of what God has called us to do and what he's inviting us into that we get to be a part of the storyline. We get to be a part of making history, of changing the earth, of seeing heaven come to earth, seeing God's kingdom manifested and ultimately seeing Jesus return, which is really amazing, really exciting. So.

When you look back, you see like the shepherds and the wise men in the story, they weren't necessarily prepared. They didn't know what was coming until it came. But there's a couple of characters that did. You see Mary, who an angel came and visit her and gave her a heads up. And she had to, when she found out what God was wanting to do, she had to come into agreement with it. And she said, let it be to me, according to your word. And then she literally gave birth to the Messiah on the earth. You see.

The intercessor Anna, who we're going to get into here in a second, she was praying and fasting for decades leading up to the return of Jesus. And as soon as he came and was brought into the temple, she recognized him because God always brings heaven to earth in partnership with humanity. That's my main point today. God always brings heaven to earth in partnership with humanity. So let's take a minute and let's look at Anna and then John the Baptist.

Presence Pioneers (02:25.902)

It says in Luke chapter two, verse 36, that there was one Anna of prophetess, the daughter of a newel of the tribe of Asher. She was of a great age and had lived with the husband seven years from her virginity. And this woman was a widow of about 84 years who did not depart from the temple, but served God with fasting and prayer night and day. And coming in that instant, she gave thanks to the Lord and spoke to him, spoke of him to all those who looked for redemption.

in Jerusalem. So Anna was this prophetic intercessor who says she stayed in the temple day and night for decades, decades. She was given herself to the ministry of prayer, giving herself to a lifestyle of fasting, seeing prophetically what God wanted to do and coming into agreement with it, with her prayers for decades, literally praying in.

the birth of Jesus to the earth. This is an amazing picture of faithfulness in the place of prayer that can inspire all of us. And she was one of these forerunners that prepared the way for Jesus to come. Now, Anna is an amazing picture of what it looks like to give yourself to vocational prayer. If you want to be a prayer missionary or an intercessory missionary, that's a real legit calling. And we have an episode on that where Johann Jung,

jumped on and shared his story of that. And so Anna is an amazing picture of what it looks like to give yourself to prayer as your job, as your primary ministry and vocation. But Anna was also an evangelist. It says in verse 38 that when Jesus came, she began to speak of him to others. So she was giving herself to prayer, but she was also a voice to proclaim Jesus as well. And so Anna is not just an inspiration to us, but she's actually a type. She's a picture of

the body of Christ, of the church. Before Jesus returns again, the church is going to be like Anna. We're going to be a church that's given to prayer, given to fasting, crying out to God day and night. We're going to be a prophetic people. We're going to see what God wants to do. We're going to know the Word of God. We're going to know the Holy Spirit. We're going to be able to have vision to see what God wants to do. And we're going to agree with it in prayer and fasting and intercession.

Presence Pioneers (04:49.646)

And we're going to give birth to God's purposes in the earth. And, and, and we're going to proclaim the name of Jesus as evangelists to see God's kingdom come. And we're going to be forerunners. So Anna is a picture of really the corporate body of Christ. She's an individual, uh, historically and can inspire us personally, but she's really a type of the body of Christ, the church and how we're going to be positioned and ready.

for the return of Jesus again, because God always brings heaven to earth in partnership with humanity. And Anna was positioned in partnership with God through prayer, fasting, intercession. And God is inviting us to be in that same position. Now, Anna was a forerunner to Jesus is coming. John the Baptist was a forerunner to Jesus's ministry. And so let's look at a couple of verses about John the Baptist. I'm going to read a few out of the book of Luke here.

Luke chapter 1.

Presence Pioneers (05:51.182)

Starting at verse 15, this is a prophecy of John the Baptist. It says, He will be great in the sight of the Lord and will drink neither wine nor strong drink. He will also be filled with the Spirit, even from his mother's womb. He will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. He will go before Him, meaning go before Jesus, go before Him. There are some translations like New American Standard says, He will be a forerunner before Him in the Spirit and the power of Elijah.

turn the hearts of the father to the children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just and to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. So this is verse 18, Luke one, excuse me, verse 17, Luke one, 17 is where we get this word forerunner from. This is the biblical basis for this idea that John the Baptist was a forerunner for Jesus. He was anointed by the Holy Spirit and says that he went in the spirit and power of Elijah, which we're going to talk about here in just a minute.

Verse 76, there's some more prophetic promises over John the Baptist that says, you child will be called the prophet of the highest. You will go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways to give knowledge of salvation to his people by the remission of their sins. So this is the same idea that John the Baptist was called to be one who prepares and one who goes before and one who's a forerunner.

And again, this is something that God is calling us to. He's calling us to be forerunners. And let's talk about this phrase, the spirit and the power of Elijah. Oh, wait, hold on. Before I get into that, let me read one more passage about John the Baptist, Luke chapter three, verses three through six. It says he, this is after he had, he had grown up and began his ministry. It says he went into all the region around Jordan.

preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins as it's written in the book of the words of Isaiah, the prophet saying the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make his path straight. Every valley shall be lifted and every mountain brought low. The crooked places will be made straight and the rough way smooth and all flesh shall see the salvation of God. So you can begin to see a picture of John the Baptist ministry here. It says,

Presence Pioneers (08:16.334)

Um, that, that John operated in the spirit and the power of Elijah. So we know John the Baptist preach repentance and call people to repentance before Jesus began his public ministry. But in verse 17 of Luke one says he operated in the spirit and the power of Elijah. What does that mean? Well, the Jewish people were expecting Elijah to actually return before the Messiah came. So their understanding was that Elijah would come.

And then the Messiah would come, the Savior would come. And so when John the Baptist shows up on the scene, it says that he's coming in the Spirit and the power of Elijah. So the Spirit of Elijah, not necessarily that he was Elijah. And so you get that promise about Elijah in Malachi four, verses five through six. We won't look at it at the moment. But Jesus was asked about this and asking if John the Baptist,

was Elijah and it's a fascinating response in Matthew chapter 17 verses 11 through 13. And so here's how it goes. Jesus answered and said, indeed Elijah is coming first and will restore all things. But I say to you, Elijah has come already and they did not know him, but did to him whatever they wished.

Likewise, the Son of Man is also about to suffer at their hands. So and then it says in verse right after that says the disciples understood that he spoke to them of John the Baptist. So Jesus is saying John the Baptist has come already as Elijah. Elijah has come already because John the Baptist has come. But wait, he also says Elijah is coming and will restore all things. So he's saying, yes, Elijah has come, but Elijah's also is coming. And that's a strange way to.

to answer this question about Elijah and to talk about John the Baptist, but we have to understand, as I've talked about before, that the kingdom of God is now and it's not yet. So Jesus says it is coming and it has come. Elijah has come, but Elijah is coming. And it's this idea that Jesus has come and he's dropped the seed of the kingdom of God into the earth. And that kingdom is spreading through his people and his ways are advancing in the earth.

Presence Pioneers (10:37.198)

But we also understand that because the world is broken and there's the fall and, you know, because of the result of sin, that the fullness of God's kingdom on the earth cannot be established until Jesus comes again. So is the kingdom now? Yes. Is the kingdom coming? Yes. Was John the Baptist a forerunner? Yes. Are there more forerunners coming? Yes, there are. The one Elijah is coming and just like John the Baptist prepared the way.

God is going to raise up his people to prepare the way for his second coming to the earth. Because, as I've said, God always brings heaven to earth in partnership with humanity. So let's take the last few minutes here and let's, you know, we see Anna.