Mid-Week Musings

December 4, 2024

Suggested Reading: Luke 3:1-6

Dear NBRC Family & Friends,

One of the characters Christians often recall as they prepare to celebrate the birth of Jesus is Zechariah and Elizabeth’s son, John the Baptist. Luke’s list of names and titles that begin chapter three of the Gospel of Luke make it clear that John began preaching “a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins” (NIV) during a time of Roman rule. But rather than preaching in the “hub” of Jerusalem and in the midst of religious and political activity, John began preaching in the wilderness.

John prepared the way for Jesus by calling people to prepare to receive Jesus through self- examination and repentance. Commentator William Barclay states,

When a king proposed to tour a part of his dominions in the east, he sent a courier before him to tell the people to prepare the roads. So John is regarded as the courier of the King. But the preparation on which he insisted was a preparation of heart and of life.
(William Barclay, The Gospel of Luke in The Daily Study Bible Series, Revised Edition, Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 1975, 32.)

To repent is to change one’s mind, to turn around, to reorient oneself. John’s call to repentance was a call to commit to a new way of life by turning away from a previous way of living, a turning from sin and to Christ, to seek God’s forgiveness.

In the text, the word of God to proclaim a message of repentance didn’t come to an important religious or political figure. It came to John, a man who lived in the wilderness, wore camel’s hair and a leather belt around his waist, and who ate locusts and wild honey (Mark 1:4-6). Wouldn’t you think God would have chosen someone more influential or powerful to proclaim such an important message? In the Bible, God often chooses ordinary people to do extra-ordinary things. Consider, for example, the Virgin Mary. Don’t think you’re too ordinary or too unimportant to be used by God!

John called people in his day to prepare their hearts for the coming of the Messiah. People today need to be called to prepare their hearts for when Jesus comes again. Is God calling you to proclaim that message to someone? Do you need to hear that message for yourself?

Pastor Ron

Prayer suggestion: As you pray, ask God to help you be prepared for the coming of Jesus, and to help others be prepared for His coming, too.

(On Sunday morning, December 8, 2024, the guest worship leader and preacher will be Rev. Ron VerWys. The sermon title is That Beautiful Name and the Scripture lesson will be from Matthew 1:18-25.)