If you are willing to receive it??

speaking of John the baptist, Jesus says:



what does He mean?
is there 'a different Elijah' for those who are not 'willing to receive' ?

He doesn't say 'if ye are willing to receive' anywhere else, about anything else -- why not?
what is it about John/Elijah that's true if only if we're "willing to receive" it ((him/Him?))?

I think it relates to having” ears to hear “

“For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. And if ye will receive it, this is Elijah , which was for to come. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.”
‭‭Matthew‬ ‭11:13-15‬ ‭KJV‬‬

if a person knows the Old Testament it prepares them to hear ( understand) the revelations of the New Testament

“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.”
‭‭Malachi‬ ‭4:5-6‬ ‭KJV‬‬

“But the angel said unto him, Fear not, Zacharias: for thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John. For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb. And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”
‭‭Luke‬ ‭1:13, 15, 17‬ ‭KJV‬‬


it’s true throughout the New Testament much of what Jesus said we are prepared to hear by hearing the prophets so even just remaining on the subject of John

“Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts.”
‭‭Malachi‬ ‭3:1‬ ‭KJV‬‬

“The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God; As it is written in the prophets, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee. … John did baptize in the wilderness, and preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.”
‭‭Mark‬ ‭1:1-2, 4‬ ‭KJV‬‬

“The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. …And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. The voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field: The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: because the spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it: surely the people is grass. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.”
‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭40:3, 5-8‬ ‭KJV‬‬

“The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.

John did baptize in the wilderness, and preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.

…. Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.”
‭‭Mark‬ ‭1:3-4, 14-15‬ ‭KJV‬‬

“Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.”
‭‭1 Peter‬ ‭1:23-25‬ ‭KJV‬‬

John was always foretold to appear just before the messiah was to come and deliver the new covenant that had been promised whos word would stand forever

I think it relates to having the ears prepared by prophecy

John is in a lot of prophecy always appearing before Christ was to come I find this interesting also this figure of Elijah in John

“And they answered him, He was an hairy man, and girt with a girdle of leather about his loins. And he said, It is Elijah the Tishbite.”
‭‭2 Kings‬ ‭1:8‬ ‭KJV‬‬


“And the same John had his raiment of camel's hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey.”
‭‭Matthew‬ ‭3:4‬ ‭KJV‬‬

I hope it made sense I think if we have heard the ot and retained any of it ot let’s us hear the gospel better and understand how it is fulfillment of those prior things

“Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.”
‭‭John‬ ‭5:39‬ ‭KJV‬‬

Good question. Elijah just seems to keep popping up here, there, and everywhere.

Matthew
17:1 And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into an high mountain apart,
17:2 And was transfigured before them: and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light.
17:3 And, behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking with him.
17:4 Then answered Peter, and said unto Jesus, Lord, it is good for us to be here: if thou wilt, let us make here three tabernacles; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias.

“And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth. These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth. (Zechariah 4:11-14)

These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy:


and have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues, as often as they will.”(exodus 7:20, exodus 7-10)
‭‭Revelation‬ ‭11:3-4, 6‬ ‭KJV‬‬

“And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As the Lord God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.”
‭‭1 Kings‬ ‭17:1‬ ‭

“Elijah was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months.”
‭‭James‬ ‭5:17‬ ‭KJV‬‬

Malachi 4:5
Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and awesome Day of the LORD.

Matthew 3:3
This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah: "A voice of one calling
in the wilderness, 'Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for Him.'"

Luke 1:17
And he will go on before the Lord in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to their
children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”

It is written that Elijah will come before the great and dreadful day of the Lord (Malachi 5:5).

He has already come before the great day of the Lord...when Jesus walked the earth.

I believe that he will come again before the dreadful day of the Lord comes...the time of Great Tribulation that is coming on the whole earth.

Malachi 4:5
Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and awesome Day of the LORD.

(There is no Malachi 5 )

EXCERPT:

Malachi is the final book of what we now call the Old Testament. Malachi, like all the prophets, delivered the message God gave him to say. These included statements about what would happen in the distant future. Malachi lived hundreds of years before the births of John the Baptist and Jesus, but he wrote what God said about them both:
Luke's gospel quotes the angel of the Lord describing the work John the Baptist will do to his father. This uses the same phrasing found in Malachi: "And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared" (Luke 1:16–17).

John the Baptist himself denied that he was literally Elijah (John 1:21); he refuted any suggestion that he was that prophet reborn or returned to earth in some way. Jesus, though, insists that John was the fulfillment of Malachi's prophecy that Elijah would be sent to prepare the way for Christ. John certainly came "in the spirit and power of Elijah," as the angel said.

Jesus adds "if you are willing to accept it," implying that He knew not everyone would grasp that this was true or what it meant. If John the Baptist was the fulfillment of the promise of the return of Elijah to usher in the day of the Lord, it means Jesus was claiming to be the Lord.

FOUND HERE:


The important meaning of the Scripture. There are those who said Jesus never claimed to be the Lord. I don't know how, because He did it more than once in Scripture.

What does Matthew 11:14 mean? - BibleRef.com

Only figuratively (and that is also how Christ alluded to him). John the Baptist came in the spirit and power of Elijah, but he was no incarnation of Elijah. He emphatically denied that he was Elijah: And he confessed, and denied not; but confessed, I am not the Christ.
And they asked him, What then? Art thou Elias? [Elijah] And he saith, I am not. Art thou that prophet? [Christ] And he answered, No. (John 1:20,21)

Elijah will literally appear on earth during the Tribulation (for 3 1/2 years) and before the great day of the LORD (the Great Tribulation). See Revelation 11. He will shut down the rain during that time, as he did while on earth during the reign of Ahab (a type of the Antichrist).

Yes, but don't forget about this Elijah (Transfiguration) event....

Matthew
17:1 And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into an high mountain apart,
17:2 And was transfigured before them: and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light.
17:3 And, behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking with him.
17:4 Then answered Peter, and said unto Jesus, Lord, it is good for us to be here: if thou wilt, let us make here three tabernacles; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias.

And his disciples asked him, saying, Why then say the scribes that Elias must first come?
And Jesus answered and said unto them, Elias truly shall first come, and restore all things
But I say unto you, That Elias is come already, and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed. Likewise shall also the Son of man suffer of them.
Then the disciples understood that he spake unto them of John the Baptist.

I think he was saying that John the Baptist was the only "Elijah" that they were going to get in that time. The Pharasees wanted the real Elijah and the Messiah that was restoring the kingdom to Israel. They were not "willing to recieve" a "type" of Elijah, and a suffering Messiah.

My bad...

In psychology, if something is denied, it is usually the truth.

So, when JTB denied that he was Elijah, it indicates that it was the truth that he was Elijah.

is John contradicting Jesus by saying this?

and if Elijah is one of the two witnesses, but for believers (("willing to receive")) John is that Elijah spoken of by Malachi, then is this indicative of pre-trib rapture?
i.e. the ones willing to receive will be gone when the witnesses appear?
or will be there, but the witnesses will not be for them?

There are many bible versions concerning Mathew 11;14. The problem concerning this scripture about Elijah is that the verb " is " turns out to be a present participle. Many version have one of the 3, is to come, was to come, or about to come so the translation is to come is literally correct. The infinitive is also present. But the infinitive has a continuous idea, so the versions are trying to capture this. To be grossly literal, the idea would be that Elijah is continuously coming, but that makes no sense. So, most likely it should be Elijah must come or will come. This is one of the places where the context determines the meanings of the participle and a strict understanding of the grammar is not that helpful.