Once upon a time at a storytelling workshop someone told us that John the Baptist was a really awesome guy. Those weren’t her exact words but if you know you know.
The verse she read to us was Matthew 11:11
“Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.”
She shared with us about John the Baptist because she was sharing with us about storytelling. A point that I have started my journal says “I am not the point, I am the pointer.” This was to comfort us in knowing our storytelling is not the point, it just points people to Jesus.
So now on to what I wanted to share in this blog:
Growing up, and in life in general, I never really thought too much about John the Baptist. Then she read us that verse and I thought ‘well that’s pretty cool’ but I still didn’t think that much about him.
I even began reading Luke the next day (October 16, 2018) and read about his miraculous conception and in that moment God revealed to me someone close to me would also be given the gift of a baby, a promise that is being fulfilled very soon!!! But, by the end of training camp and when I finally shared the revelation God had given me I forgot the story from the Bible was actually about John the Baptist and said it was about Isaac.
Crazily enough I didn’t remember it was John the Baptist at all until yesterday when I read the beginning of Luke again and because of that realization I was able to find in my journal where I wrote down this promise and in my Bible where I wrote the date. So, needless to say I got pretty excited about the story of John the Baptist yesterday!
In my reading plan (I’m reading the Gospels chronologically in the passion translation) I read more about him too, when I got to Matthew 3 things I had never even thought twice about came to life in a new way.
I am putting the whole chapter here for referencing
Matthew 3 The Passion Translation (TPT)
John the Baptizer
3 It was at this time that John the Baptizer began to preach in the desert of Judah. His message was this: 2 “The realm of heaven’s kingdom is about to appear—so you’d better keep turning away from evil and turn back to God!”
3 Isaiah was referring to John when he prophesied:
A thunderous voice! One will be crying out in the wilderness,
“Prepare yourself for the Lord’s coming
and level a straight path inside your hearts for him.”
4 Now, John wore clothing made from camel’s hair, tied at his waist with a leather strap, and his food consisted of dried locusts and wild honey. 5 A steady stream of people from Jerusalem, all the surrounding countryside, and the region near the Jordan came out to the wilderness to be baptized by him. 6 And while they were publicly confessing their sins, he would immerse them in the Jordan River.
7 But when he saw many coming from among the wealthy elite of Jewish society and many of the religious leaders known as Pharisees coming to witness the baptism, he began to denounce them, saying, “You offspring of vipers! Who warned you to slither away like snakes from the fire of God’s judgment? 8 You must prove your repentance by a changed life. 9 And don’t presume you can get away with merely saying to yourselves, ‘But we’re Abraham’s descendants!’ For I tell you, God can awaken these stones to become sons of Abraham! 10 The axe is now ready to cut down the trees at their very roots. Every fruitless, rotten tree will be chopped down and thrown into the fire. 11 Those who repent I baptize with water, but there is coming a Man after me who is more powerful than I am. In fact, I’m not even worthy enough to pick up his sandals. He will submerge you into union with the Spirit of Holiness and with a raging fire! 12 He comes with a winnowing fork in his hands and comes to his threshing floor to sift what is worthless from what is pure. And he is ready to sweep out his threshing floor and gather his wheat into his granary, but the straw he will burn up with a fire that can’t be extinguished!”
13 Then Jesus left Galilee to come to the Jordan to be baptized by John. 14 But when he waded into the water, John resisted him, saying, “Why are you doing this? I’m the one who needs to be baptized by you, and yet you come to be baptized by me?”
15 Jesus replied, “It is only right to do all that God requires.” Then John baptized Jesus. 16 And as Jesus rose up out of the water, the heavenly realm opened up over him and he saw the Holy Spirit descend out of the heavens and rest upon him in the form of a dove. 17 Then suddenly the voice of the Father shouted from the sky, saying, “This is the Son I love, and my greatest delight is in him.”
So I could write about every verse but I will just share some of the highlights of what God was showing me through this chapter.
Verse 8: your repentance should be seen in how your life is changed.
Verse 9: this change should be evident and real, we can’t rely on the faith of our parents or family members and claim it as our own.
(Also if God says something it makes it true! He can literally decide to just make new people out of stones and then call them the descendants of Abraham! What?!?)
Verse 10: another example from many in the Bible about how our lives being changed for God will be evident from our fruit. In other words, if there is no fruit your life isn’t changed so you haven’t turned away from your old life to follow Christ. And I would say sorry the end of that verse is harsh, but I’m not sorry, I know it’s harsh, but that’s the reality!!
Okay, a tiny hop down to verses 13-15: Jesus is baptized!
Jesus being baptized was one of those things I used to read or hear and just think ‘OK it happened, it had to happen, and then His ministry started.’ But this time when I read verse 15 with Jesus’ reply being “it is only right to do all that God requires”, I got a little confused here.
I believed, and still do, that water baptism is not required to be saved. So I looked up the verse in another translation: “But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented.” Matthew 3:15 ESV
I read this verse in my study Bible so then I looked down at the study notes and they said, “Jesus‘ baptism inaugurates His ministry and fulfills God saving activity prophesied throughout the Old Testament, culminating with His death on the cross. In doing so, Jesus also endorses John‘s ministry and message and links His mission to John‘s. Although He needed no repentance or cleansing, Jesus identifies with the sinful people He came to save through His substitutionary life and death.”
His death on the cross, the vary thing baptism symbolizes, our death to our old self. Which if you loop back up to the earlier versus where John was teaching this whole chapter gets looped together! This is extra important after reading the study notes, because Jesus endorses John’s ministry and his message, which is what he was teaching before.
Okay, and now for the last verse!
Verse 17: the only verse I used to get excited about in this whole chapter…
I can’t remember who the sermon was by but I heard it while on the race from a podcast and the point shared about this last verse really stuck with me.
17 Then suddenly the voice of the Father shouted from the sky, saying, “This is the Son I love, and my greatest delight is in him.”
This point is only a theory but it’s a theory I like. The theory is that God is always cheering us on from heaven, all of us! He cheers us on when we do the things that make Him happy and the things that are in His will. And in this moment He was cheering on Jesus, but He cheered so loud that it broke through the sky and was heard on the earth!
Whether or not that theory is true, God is still always cheering us on when we live our lives for Him!
Those revelations just flew out of my mind into my journal yesterday. I had a moment thinking maybe I would write a sermon about this passage to have as my pocket sermon. I still might, but I also realized this morning that I don’t have to wait to share these things in a sermon but I can share them right here! I’ve been wanting to write a blog, something about my life and all, but this seemed like the way to go.
So, I hope this blog is encouraging to you, I know its not really a blog but more of a Bible study, but I hope you enjoyed it just the same!
Remember God is cheering you on!
