Did I Hear Correctly?

Bible In A Year | Read: Matthew 3

1 In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea 2and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” 3This 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.’ ” 4John’s clothes were made of camel’s hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey. 5People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. 6Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.” Matthew 3:1-6

No King comes unannounced – and God sent John the Baptist ahead of King Jesus.  God wanted His people to be ready to receive Jesus and the kingdom Jesus would bring, but it would require some preparation.  They needed hearts clean and ready to receive their King, so John helped people get ready.  

Again, the Jewish people knew from the Word of God that a man would come before the Messiah and prepare the way.  So it did not surprise them that John the Baptist would come – and that the Messiah would come immediately after John.

John was not the kind of man we would expect as the representative of God – he was dressed simply, he ate funny food, and he stayed outside of the cities (in the desert and along the Jordan river).  If they did not want to believe John would prepare the way for the Messiah, they had lots of reasons to back up their belief.  God does things differently than what we think is the right way to do it. 

John the Baptist is challenging his fellow Jews to take a serious look at their sin. Jews typically behaved much better than their non-Jewish neighbors, so they probably thought they were doing pretty well. John lets them know God’s kingdom is coming, and the half-hearted attempts at living life like they should were not going to be enough. They needed to be cleansed from sin in a way only God could provide. Even though Jesus had no sin that required repentance or cleansing, he still wanted to be baptized to show that cleansing from God was necessary to achieve righteousness from God’s perspective.

Do you rely on your own good behavior to achieve righteousness or the cleansing that comes from trusting in Jesus? If you are trusting in Jesus, have you been baptized to demonstrate that to others?

Action Step

What is God showing me?  What am I going to do about it?