Sunday - Luke 3:1-22

Little baby John who's birth was celebrated in chapter one is all grown up and active in the ministry God set out for him. This ministry was explained to his parents before his birth saying he would "...pursuade many Israelits to run to the Lord their God. (1:16) and ...precede the coming of the Lord, preparing the people for his arrival (1:17)." In chapter 3 we find John doing these very things. He is calling the people of Israel to "be baptized to show that they had turned from their sins and turned to God to be forgiven." (3:3)

I wonder at the type of person who would be willing to head out to the Jordan River to hear and even obey a man who talks of their condemnation. We see varieties of people asking questions of John. The crowd, tax collectors, and soldiers. John seems to have a big truth stick and yet the people want to know what they should do to right their life, instead of thinking he was just a crazy man.

Why is it that John's ministry was so powerful? Here are some things that stuck out to me. 1:15b says that John, "will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even before his birth." John wasn't speaking to people because it was a fun thing to do on a Sat afternoon. He was being obedient to the very words and actions the Spirit of God was calling him to do. During a time when the Spirit hadn't been given to every believer yet John was being filled with God Himself. 3:4 says "Isaiah had spoken of John when he said..." John's life had been prophesied all the way back in the time of Isaiah. He was fulfilling what he was created to do. 3:16, "...someone i coming soon who is greater thatn I am..." John knew the supremacy and work of a coming Savior. He knew that his ministry was only to set up the ministry of the true King of Kings. He lived his life in surrender to Christ.

These very things can be applied to our life. We are blessed with the filling of the Spirit. We can ask the Lord what He has for us to be to live for Him this day. We can live our lives in surrender to Christ. No, we aren't John the Baptist. He played a very specific role in the redemption of God's people, but in a way the same can be true of us.