At the time the Old Testament era ended, the earthly system of service was still in place. In Jerusalem of Judea there was still the temple, and there were still priests offering sacrifices, worshipping, and serving God according to the God-ordained institutions. Then suddenly John the Baptist appeared. He was not in the temple, and he was not a priest. He did not wear a priestly garment but instead lived in the wilderness, eating locusts and wild honey and wearing camel’s hair. He was serving the Lord totally apart from the traditional rituals and ordinances. Please tell me who was serving according to a vision at that time: Was it the priests who were abiding by the traditions, or was it John the Baptist who had dropped all the traditions? The Gospel of John shows clearly that the priests, the elders, the scribes, the Pharisees, and all the other Jewish religionists were serving God fully according to their religion, traditions, ordinances, knowledge, and doctrines. They were not under any vision. Only one man was serving under a vision—John the Baptist.
The ministry of John the Baptist was a kind of termination. It was for the purpose of ushering in a new beginning. The baptism of John the Baptist initiated the Lord Jesus into His office for the accomplishment of His ministry. John the Baptist clearly indicated that his ministry was a pioneering and initiating ministry (John 1:23, 28-30), but his disciples did not understand this. They thought that John was a great man and that his teaching was unique. This was why they followed him and his teachings. Unconsciously, they began to compete with the Lord’s ministry. Beginning from Matthew 9, we see the disciples of John questioning the Lord Jesus. Their questioning put them in the same category as the Pharisees (v. 14). According to Luke 5:33 it was the Pharisees who questioned Him, but Mark 2:18 seems to say that it was the disciples of John and the Pharisees together who questioned the Lord. Before this time, the Pharisees were the only questioning party. After Matthew 9, John’s disciples became another party.
At this point we see three parties: the Jewish religion, John’s religion, and the Lord Jesus. All of them were serving God. Please tell me which of them were serving under a vision. No doubt those who followed the Lord Jesus were the only ones serving under a vision. Not only were the Jewish religionists not under the vision; even the followers of John the Baptist were not under the vision. God had set the Jewish religion aside and had used John the Baptist to bring in a new beginning, but when the Lord Jesus came, John’s religion still remained on the scene competing with the Lord. God was forced by the situation to send John to prison. However, John still sent his disciples from his prison to the Lord Jesus to ask Him questions. On the one hand, the Lord commended John’s ministry. On the other hand, He encouraged John to take the way that the Lord had ordained for him and to experience the blessing in that way. Soon after this, John was martyred. In this way God sovereignly ended the ministry of John.
However, John’s religion did not stop with his death. In Acts 18 and 19 this line reappeared and caused a problem. Apollos only knew the baptism of John, and he preached this when he went down to Ephesus (18:24-25; 19:3). This brought in the decline of the church. In the seven churches in Revelation 2 and 3, Ephesus shows the beginning of the degradation of the church. John’s religion was the source of this problem, and Apollos was the one who sowed the seed of this problem.
While the Lord Jesus was fulfilling His ministry on the earth, those who were following Him were the only ones who had inherited the visions of the previous ages and who were at the same time catching up with the vision that matched that age. Not only had they inherited the visions that went before them, but they were caught up with the vision of that age when they followed the Lord Jesus. This group of people consisted of men like Peter, James, and John. None among the disciples was as foolish and uncouth as Peter. However, he was not foolish in one thing. While the Lord Jesus was shining on him as a great light and calling him by the Sea of Galilee, he together with Andrew, James, and John responded to the light and was attracted by the Lord to drop everything to follow Him (Matt. 4:15-16, 18-22). Andrew was first a disciple of John the Baptist (John 1:35-40). Now he and Peter, James, and John forsook the Jewish religion and John’s religion. They even forsook their fishing career, leaving behind their fathers and their nets, and followed the Lord single-heartedly.
Outwardly speaking, Peter was following blindly. He was blindly following for three and a half years. Every day he was speaking nonsense. However, once, and only once, he spoke a clear word. When the Lord took the disciples up to the region of Caesarea Philippi and asked them who the Son of Man was, Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matt. 16:16). This was a word full of revelation. Regrettably, he only spoke one clear word. After this, he spoke many foolish words again. When the Lord indicated to the disciples that He had to go to Jerusalem to suffer under the hands of the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes and would be killed and then resurrected after three days, Peter took Him aside and rebuked Him, saying, “God be merciful to You, Lord! This shall by no means happen to You!” (vv. 21-22). But the Lord turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan!” (v. 23). This shows that Peter was indeed following blindly. He did not know what he was doing. He followed blindly but rightly. Sometimes when a person is too clear, he ends up doing the wrong thing. When he is a little foolish, he ends up in the right place. At that time all those who were following the Lord Jesus, male or female, including such ones as Mary, were all foolish. Today we may appear foolish, but we can follow the Lord faithfully.
From the Bible we can see that not too many who followed the Lord were clear. Even the Lord Jesus’ own mother, Mary, was not so clear; she was somewhat muddled. She spoke some foolish words a few times and was rebuked. Although they were all foolish, they were foolish in the right direction. Men like Nicodemus who were so “clear” were not doing better in any way. Although they were clear that the Lord had the vision, they were not absolute in following Him. They were following Him only in a halfhearted way. Actually, they were only trailing behind Him and not following Him. I believe that among those who were “following” the Lord, Nicodemus was the clearest one, and Peter was the most foolish one. Yet the one who was the most foolish was the one who followed in the most genuine way. Although sometimes he failed, he was the most absolute one in following. When the Lord told the disciples that they would all be stumbled because of Him, Peter responded by saying, “If all will be stumbled because of You, I will never be stumbled.” The Lord told him, “Truly I say to you that in this night, before a rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.” Peter then said, “Even if I must die with You, I will by no means deny You” (Matt. 26:31-35). Of course, he did not keep his promise. On the contrary, he denied the Lord three times as was foretold by Him. Although Peter was such a person, he took the right path, and he followed the vision.