Preparing The Way
Please Read: Matthew 3:1-12
Something about John the Baptist strikes us. He is odd… O-D-D. Yet, that is what drew people to him more than likely. He wore strange clothes and ate strange things (v.4) but something about him probably just seemed right. John taught repentance and the Jews were listening. John was sent to prepare the way for Jesus Christ and he is not ashamed to let the people know this (v.11-12) and when he sees the Pharisees and Sadducees, the men that were supposedly above reproach, he rebukes them (v. 7-10). These men thought that their good deeds and their family tree saved them. They believed that because they were children of Abraham and that they counted themselves more worthy than the rest of the “vile sinners”, that they had a special claim on God but John warned them that unless they were repentant and produced fruit in keeping with repentance, they would be “cut down and thrown into the fire” (v.10)
John reminds the religious elite and the commoners alike that repentance will pave the way to forgiveness of sin and closeness with God.
*Further Reading:
John the Baptist was prophesied about: Isaiah 40:3, Malachi 3:1
To read more about John the Baptist’s interesting conception and birth, read Luke 1:5-25, 57-80
John the Baptist denies being Elijah and the Messiah, proclaims Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God: John 1:15-35
360 Days with Jesus 