Author: KingdomLink

It is the honor of any king to protect his people, and the hallmark of a good  king is that  he rules in such a way as to not only protect his people, but to also bless his people. So, one must expect that the King of Kings would certainly be about protecting His people. Indeed, did Jesus not instruct us to pray, “Deliver us from the evil one’?  So it is a challenging piece of Scripture to read the Holy Spirit leading God’s own into a place of temptation! Yet that is exactly what Matthew 4:1 says, “Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil.” 

The initial affront to our common sense only dissipates when we start to examine the text closer and realize that the Holy Spirit does not lead Jesus into temptation, but into the dry and barren wilderness. The Spirit led Him into a place – the desert, where He would be tempted – not into temptation per se. That is a critical difference, and most helpful to understanding just what is going on when we too are tempted. One is immediately reminded of what James said, “When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed.” 

What the Spirit leads Jesus into is not a temptation, but a trial. In fact, this is the epitome of a trial. For it is there in the wilderness – free from the eyes of onlookers – that Jesus must confront any impurity within Himself, and it is there – apart from the support of family and friends – that Jesus must stand against the lies the evil one tells Him. 

The truth is that trials – even very difficult trials – are something the Spirit does lead God’s people into, and not uncommonly. That is because trials are meant to be a blessing, for they allow us to see something we might not otherwise see. A trial lets you see the impurity within yourself. Friend, know that the devil cannot plant an impurity within you, it must already exist. All our enemy can do is suggest we act on it. Remember that John 16:13a says, “When He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth.” All the truth includes truth not only about God Most High and the world around you, but also truth about you. Even the truth about your inner self, and the most hidden parts of your soul. For when you are in a trial, the evil one’s lies will be to prompt you to act out the impurity within. But we don’t have to listen to the evil one. We can instead perceive and repent of that impurity. That is a very personal blessing – both because it provides self-awareness of vindication, and also because God rewards those He knows are trustworthy. 

Trials will come. Embrace them, knowing that God is allowing you to see and repent of the impurity within so that He might bless you all the more as you reflect Him better in days to come. After all, “Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.”  

Trials help to strengthen us. It is impossible for a Christian to be very strong—in certain ways, at any rate—unless he grapple with difficulties and endure hardships. There is no proving your courage and prowess in war, except you smell gunpowder, and are exposed to the dread artillery. My arm would soon weary if I had to lift the blacksmith’s hammer for an hour or two, and make horseshoes. I am afraid I should soon give up the business. But the blacksmith’s arm does not ache, for he has been at it so many years, and he rings out a tune on the anvil, so joyfully does his strong arm do the work. Practice has strengthened him. And so, when we have become inured to trial and trouble, faith is to us a far more simple matter than it was before, and we become “strong in the Lord and in the power of his might.”

Charles Spurgeon

APPLICATION: Intentionality

Reflect on the trial you are either experiencing now or have recently come through. What impurity have you been are or being delivered from? How can you best cooperate with God in that process? 

“As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment   heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” 

Even if we’ve read it a thousand times, these are not words we should skip over lightly. Not only because we’ll loose the intended impact (it would’ve been a wildly unanticipated revelation to any overhearing it at the time), but because sooner or later we all need to hear the same things said of us. 

Today many people question their identity. They do so because they have not yet heard from their Father in heaven. Identity comes from Him. He is our God, our Creator and our Father, and it is His voice to us that assigns our identity and calling. Apart of His voice we do not truly know either. Apart from His affirmation of us we come to question who and what we are, and consequently we cannot minister in confidence or power, but only in boasting and fear.  

Teaching pastor Jeff Vanderstelt once said, “Before Jesus began His ministry, He heard the Father say to Him, “This is my beloved Son, in Him I am well pleased.”  Have you heard Him say that to you?  Has the Spirit of God – as Paul says in Romans 5 – poured the love of the Father into your heart?  Has He – as Paul says in Romans 8 – given that you can call God, Abba – Daddy – Father?  Because if He hasn’t, most of you will do ministry so that the Father will love you, instead of doing ministry because you know the Father loves you. You will use people to gain love instead of serving people to give love.” 

That is not to say that we cannot be used of God apart from hearing His Voice. God uses all of us, all the time. But what Jeff articulated is a powerful truth that many have had to find out the hard way, living ministry lives that bear little fruitfulness externally because there has been little fruitfulness internally. It is a great and necessary step forward in the Kingdom of God to fully realize your identity as a child of God and heir of the King, and to begin to serve Him from that position of value instead of trying to earn value in the eyes of others. 

Indeed, Jesus’ example comes before He even starts His ministry. Everything we know about how He accomplished His mission comes after He had been baptized, after He had seen the Kingdom of God (for heaven was opened for Him), after He knew the Spirit was upon Him (for He saw the Spirit alighting upon Him) and after He had heard the Voice of God speaking to Him. Quite simply, Jesus waited to do ministry till after He was baptized both by water and by Spirit.  From this point on, we can be certain that Jesus was certain about who He was, who the Father was and about what He was do to.  

It is no wonder He was a confident minister. 

Our need for worth is so powerful that whatever we base our identity and value on we essentially ‘deify.’ We will look to it with all the passion and intensity of worship and devotion, even if we think ourselves as highly irreligious.

Tim Keller

APPLICATION: Intentionality 

Consider all that God has spoken about you. That is reality. That is the basis upon which you can do all that He has asked you to do. Are you certain of who you are before God?  Are you ministering out of that identity?

It is custom in many cultures for those closest to you to express words of  encouragement and blessing at the most meaningful times of life. For this reason speeches are made at weddings and graduations, and eulogies are made at funerals.  But there are other occasions that are equally important, and one of those is your baptism. On this side of the cross we understand baptism as a public ratification of God’s new covenant in Christ. Of course, back in John the Baptist’s days, Christ’s sacrifice had not yet been accomplished, yet baptism was hardly less significant. 

Water baptism is representative of being born anew, because it signifies both death to the old self (going under the water) and life of the new self (rising up from the water). Such a thing cannot be undone. So it is not, nor is it meant to be, a small decision. It is done in sight of both the community and in the sight of God. It should be no surprise then, that just as at a wedding or a graduation, emotions can run high.    

We can hear that emotion in the Father’s voice as Jesus gets baptized. “As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”” 

Listen to the emotion of those words! Hearing a blessing from your father is always an impactful and emotional moment.  Hearing a blessing from God Most High is much more so. The Father imparts to Jesus three things; Firstly, a statement of His identity and role; Jesus is the Father’s Son. No doubt Jesus knew that, but it is still a powerfully impactful statement that the Father identifies Himself with Jesus. Then the Father affirms His love for Jesus, and then the Father confers His approval upon Him. It is almost as thought the Father is gushing with pride for seeing His Son so embrace His mission.  

S.K. Weber writes, “This scene is something like a family reunion—all three members of the Trinity manifesting their presence in such a way that bystanders could see or hear them. This was a testimony to human witnesses about the identity of Jesus, the Messiah. It serves as one of hundreds of exhibits in Matthew’s Gospel for Jesus as the Messiah. It was also a personal affirmation from the first and third members of the Trinity to the Son. This fact reminds us of the emotional-relational side of the Godhead, a side we often forget. Even God the Son enjoyed personal affirmation from his family.” 

As the Father and Spirit affirmed the Son, so also they affirm those who are in Christ. His Word says to us, “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” As though to emphasize the point and ensure we  get it, The Lord calls us “dear children” over two dozen times in Scripture. Beyond that and even more personally, often one of the first things Christians hear when they learn to truly hear God’s voice is  Him calling their name. The Father is Our Father too, and He is not afraid to show it in ways we understand as personal  and profoundly moving.  

God’s love for us […] dates back to a time before we were born,—aye, even to eternity past. It is a love which was fastened upon us, although God knew the worst of us. It is unchanging, because founded upon his infinite and eternal love to Christ.

AH Strong

APPLICATION: Thanksgiving

God loves you. Truly, deeply and profoundly loves you. Prayerfully meditate on that reality, and respond accordingly.  As 1John 4:19 says, “We love because he first loved us.”

 The people of Israel have been coming from all over to receive the baptism of  repentance by John. Not only the common folk, but the spiritual leaders as well.  John warns each of them to take it seriously. Then John gets yet another visitor. Matthew writes, “Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. But John tried to deter him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John consented.” 

John is apparently instantly aware that Jesus has no need for a baptism of repentance.  His perception is spot on – the situation is very much reverse of what it ought to be; As righteous as John is, he stands yet in need of Jesus’ ministry, not the other way around. 

But Jesus – knowing that the people around them do not yet know who He is – instructs John to proceed all the same. One commentator writes, “The words “to fulfill all righteousness” mean that Jesus, with John’s cooperation, is to do all that is right for the completion of his mission.”  That completion depended on Jesus’ incarnation and ministry among sinners, but also His complete identification with the sinners He came to save. And Jesus’ identification is so much so that He feels the need to be baptized.  

What Jesus did in submitting to John’s ministry is the very definition of intercession: To so identify with those you are ministering to, that before God you repent on their behalf, crying out to Him for mercy on them. Such is the depth of Jesus’ love for the lost He is surrounded by, and such is the length of His humility in modelling righteousness for them.

That is not just a note of interest. It is a tremendously practical and tremendously profound object lesson for us. For the mission Jesus revealed during this personal conversation with John is also our mission. We know that because much later, Jesus will say, “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” We are sent with the same objective as He was sent (to reconcile others to God), and we are reminded of that fact every time someone refers to us as a Christian (which means, literally ‘little Christ’). We are therefore obligated to also identify with those God sends to us, and those He sends us to. We are to get to know them, to practice their language and invest in their lives, so that we can pray to God for them and intercede on their behalf. 

After all, they cannot do so on their own accord – they are spiritually dead and unable to respond to the things of heaven until mercy is put upon them. 

We are priests, which is far more than being a king or queen, because the priesthood makes us worthy to stand before God and to intercede for others.

Martin Luther

APPLICATION: Prayer

Today, pray for the lost around you. Intercede for them, and call on God to have mercy toward them. Then, pray for them that they too will hear God’s voice calling them to repentance. PTL, mercy triumphs over judgment!

A garden is much more orderly than the wild outdoors. Though there is beauty in both,   and though mankind can find a certain satisfaction in the outdoors, our inherent tendency is to tame it and structure it. It’s a reflection of man’s first job. Adam was tasked with working and taking care of the garden (Gen 2:15). So it is not hard to understand that every person has the ability to choose (what belongs where) and the ability to organize (this from that), perhaps even a built-in need to do that on some level.  God made us to bring a certain kind of order to the created world. One might even say that human life consists of using discernment and making decisions to affect the environment around us. With these tools we build cities as well as gardens, and with these tools we determine the lives of the plants and animals in our environment. We weed and tend our gardens, and we govern and police our cities. 

We are like that because we made in the image of God, and Sovereign God does likewise. He determines what to create, and He discerns who is to live and when, and who must be given yet another opportunity to thrive, and who must perish. Our times and lives are in His hands, always.

John the Baptist has already given us five reasons why repentance should be sought wholeheartedly.  As Matthew wraps up John’s message, the Baptist gives us two more. Speaking of Christ who is to come after him, John says He will go about, “…gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”  As with the earlier analogies of threshing and winnowing, ‘gathering into the barn’ and ‘burning the chaff’ are metaphors easily understood by an agrarian society. Everyone can know that you store what you value and can use, and you burn what is useless. John’s final two reasons both have to do with our final state.  One result – that of being gathered and kept by God, is for the repentant. The other result – that of being burned to ash – is for the unrepentant. 

To modern ears that can all sound more than a little harsh. But then again, is it not harsh to commit treason against the King of Kings? Is it not even harsher to reject the sacrifice of God incarnate, made on account of your treason that you might be cleared of your sin? 

The modern reader might think that God would want to lead with love, not a call to repentance. But God has already lead with love. He has provided us a world that has everything we need and more. He has give us life to enjoy, a society to thrive in and His Word to rightly guide us in both, and He did not do all that for nothing. It was all to lead us to repentance. As Paul wrote, “Do you think you will escape God’s judgment? Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness leads you toward repentance? But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed. God “will give to each person according to what he has done.” To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger.”

John is right to emphasize repentance and to keep hounding us about it. Without repentance, we are but chaff awaiting fire. With it, we are blessed of God and welcome in His household. 

God gives us time enough to turn and live. When a teacher sets a task of a few pages to his scholar, and says, “I give you a week to do it in,” he allows him a “long time,” for the task is one which might be done in an hour. So, when God says, “Seek ye Me, and ye shall live,” or “Acquaint thyself now with God, and be at peace,” and gives us a lifetime for this, He is giving us “a long time.” We delay, and linger, and loiter; so that year after year passes by, and we are no nearer God than at first. But our delays do not change the long time. We make it a short one by our folly; but it was really long for the thing that was to be done.

Horatius Bonar

APPLICATION: Repentance

There is always something more of ourselves to loose, and something more of God to gain. For that reason alone we have more than enough to seek His face in repentance.

John the Baptist had many calls for heartfelt repentance. He has already told   us that the One to come is far more powerful. He has already mentioned that Messiah’s status is so lofty that he doesn’t consider himself even worthy to be the lowest of slaves in His household. Now John says of the One to come, “His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor…”   

The Lexham Bible Dictionary tells us that the steps in ancient grain production were:

1. Plowing (1 Sam 11:5; Isa 2:4; Joel 3:10)

2. Planting (Gen 26:12; Deut 22:9; Jer 50:16)

3. Harvesting (Deut 6:19; Jer 50:16; Joel 3:13)

4. Stacking stalks in sheaves (Gen 37:7; Ruth 2:7, 15; Zech 12:6)

5. Transporting sheaves to the threshing floor (Amos 2:13; Mic 4:2)

6. Threshing (Deut 25:4; Judg 6:11; 2 Sam 24:16–25)

7. Winnowing (Exod 15:7; Job 13:25; Isa 30:24)

8. Sifting (Amos 9:9; Luke 22:31)

9. Milling (Gen 18:6), parching (2 Sam 17:28), or storing (Joel 1:17)

To clear the threshing floor was necessary after sifting. The farmer threshed the grain by lashing it with flails or leading animals to repeatedly step on it, often pulling a heavy sledge in a processes reminiscent of steamrolling. This separated out the grain from the chaff, and by using a winnowing fork to toss the resultant mass into the air, the gain would separate out, falling straight down while the chaff and straw would be blown downwind. Once the chaff was separated out, the grain lay all over the threshing floor, and prior to processing for food it had to be cleaned up. The farmer or their assistants would sweep it all up and put in baskets or jars so that none of it would be lost. 

It was all a very laborious process, but absolutely necessary. Straw and chaff are inedible, and grain sold without adequate separation was therefore useless and unprofitable. Inversely, grain was very valuable, so none of it would be wasted – the threshing floor was never left partially covered in grain. Wise farmers gathered all of it, and Christ is the very epitome of a wise farmer. To that point John uses a word for ‘clear’ that implies ‘to completely empty’. As the NASB better puts it, “He will thoroughly clear His threshing floor.”  

You may think that you haven’t gathered so much, and that your spiritual fruitfulness is far too small to cover God’s threshing floor. You may even think for a moment that what little fruit you have is so small as to be lost in the hurry of the harvest. But Christ will thoroughly clear His threshing floor, and nothing will be lost. All of the fruitfulness that genuine repentance produces will be counted – every last act and every witness of His Name. 

Fear not, even a cup of cold water given in His Name will earn a reward in glory. 

A farmer does not wrest the plant from the seed. He sows the seed and leaves the result to God. If God’s people are fait

HH Hobbs

APPLICATION: Thankfulness

Thank God that He who knows the number of hairs on your head also knows what you have done for His Name. Meditate on Hebrews 6:10, “God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them.”

John continues his reasons why we ought to be earnestly repentant, saying of Messiah, “His winnowing fork is in his hand.” A winnowing fork is a multi-pronged wooden pitchfork used to toss threshed (beaten or crushed) grain, “into the air so that the wind can separate the lighter straw from the heaver grain.”  Winnowing (the act of using the winnowing fork) is a separation process. It is the removal of what is unnecessary and unwanted from the valuable and wanted. 

A clearer metaphor could not be wished for in an agrarian society (as Israel was in John’s day). The One to come after John the Baptist will be about separating the covenant children of God from the condemned. The context of the statement allows that it builds on John’s previous comments; Christ’s arrival is imminent, which means the opportunity to ensure that you are on the right side of that separation process is urgent, because the decision will shortly be taken out of your hands. The urgent nature of John’s ministry is all the more highlighted when one realizes that all it takes for anyone to begin the transition from chaff to grain is wholehearted repentance. 

It is one thing to lose out on an opportunity when you do not have the means to win. If all of life depended on you winning an olympic race, you may well have a case that there was no point in even trying. But all of life does not depend on the accomplishment of such a high and lofty goal. It depends merely on your willingness to lay down your pride and turn to God. It depends entirely on repentance. 

Billy Graham used to have a radio show called “Hour of Decision” in which he preached the Gospel of Jesus Christ over the airwaves and called on people to make a personal decision for Christ. That ministry started in 1950 and ran till 2015. Through it many souls have been saved, and it continues today in syndication.  Of course, Billy Graham and his association do not have a monopoly on the call to repentance anymore than John did in his day. To call others to a single critical decision for God Most High is something all of God’s own can do just as easily as they themselves can repent. What is more, such a call is just as – if not more – urgent in our day than it was in John’s. For Christ’s second appearing and the final judgment are just as close to us as Christ’s first appearing was for John. 

That reality means what while we can, we must do all we can, to prepare people for Christ’s imminent return. Just as John pointed out, the day draws near when such work will end, and His work of separating the grain from the chaff will suddenly begin. Then it will be too late for all those around us who have not yet repented, and it will also be too late for us to have enjoined His mission. The time to repent of sins is now, and the time to repent of inaction is now. Today is the day of salvation for those who repent of their sins, and today is the day of engagement for those who repent of inaction.

Your piety is worthless unless it leads you to wish that the same mercy which has been extended to you may bless the whole world.

Charles Spurgeon

APPLICATION: Intentionality

If you knew for certain Christ would come back in the next few years, what would you want to set about doing? Who do you yet need to speak to? What stops you from doing it now?

John gives seven reasons why we ought to be earnestly repentant. The first of those   reasons is the power of Christ. The second is that Christ is so holy and exalted that even the best of us are not worthy of Him. The third reason John gives is, “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.”  This is a markedly different experience from John’s baptism with water.  

The act of baptism is highly symbolic and deeply spiritual. At the very least, it is the public illustration of our being dead to sin and the old life (by going under the water), and of our coming alive to God and being born anew (in our coming up from the water). Water is a substance we can all understand. But the One John says will follow him will provide both a baptism of the person of the Holy Spirit, and a baptism of fire. To be baptized into God’s Spirit is not something as easily envisioned as simple immersion into water! 

Craig Blomberg writes in the New American Commentary, “The expression baptism “with/in the Holy Spirit” appears six other times in the New Testament. Five of these texts refer to this very saying of John (Mark 1:8; Luke 3:16; John 1:33; Acts 1:5; 11:16). Acts 1–2 demonstrates that John’s prediction was fulfilled at Pentecost. The sixth reference appears in 1 Cor 12:13, where it is clear that all Christians receive Spirit-baptism. The phrase therefore refers to a ritual that depicts a believer’s initiation into the body of Christ by the indwelling Holy Spirit, who never departs following true conversion and regeneration.” All true – yet the word ‘baptizo’ used in the text, and the context in which it is used (that is, repenting wholeheartedly) communicates more than simple immersion signifying a changed worldview. It communicates the flooding of, and the sustained dwelling with the presence of God. One therefore cannot simply say, “I received the Spirit a long time ago and it’s done”, but must instead confess, “I received the Spirit at salvation, and I seek every day to live in awareness of and in full communion with the Spirit of God.”  There is a world of difference between the two, just as there is a massive delta between mere participation in water baptism and heartfelt repentance. 

Ed Silvoso once used the illustration of a making a pickle in speaking of the Baptism of the Spirit.  He pointed out that to make one, you first dip a small cucumber into hot water to ‘bapto’ it – to soften its outer membrane. Then you can ‘baptismo’ it in the brine over a long time. As it soaks in that solution, the very character of the vegetable is changed. It starts out as a cucumber, but over time and at some point becomes a pickle. Likewise, our character is changed as we ‘soak’ in the presence of God. As we stay immersed in His Word, as we keep worshipping together with other saints, as we seek His face in prayer – we become more like Him and less like our old selves. 

That’s not only central to who we are called to be, it’s critical for our future baptism of fire. As the Lord said through Isaiah long ago, “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are Mine! When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; And through the rivers, they will not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched, nor will the flame burn you. For I am the Lord your God, The Holy One of Israel, your Savior.”

Will power does not change men. Time does not change men. Christ does.

Henry Drummond

APPLICATION: Intentionality

Today, practice soaking in God’s presence. What is the Spirit saying to you?

John continues his rebuke of the Jewish leadership, who have come to him to be   baptized, “I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”  

John gives seven reasons why the Jewish leadership ought to be earnestly repentant.  The first of those reasons is the power of Christ. The second reason John gives is, “whose sandals I am not fit to carry”.  The NASB puts it, “I am not fit to remove His sandals.”  Scholars have long recognized the poignant nature of John’s self-deprecating comment.  John Nolland wrote, “The scale of the status difference between John and the coming agent of God is figured by the image of John’s being unworthy to carry his sandals. Carrying the clothing of another is clearly a servant role. It became a rabbinic image of self-humiliation. Smelly and dirty footwear could be a particularly unpleasant part of the clothing to have to deal with. John inverts an obvious image of humiliation to express graphically the status differential involved.” WS Lewis and HM Booth likewise comment, “Among Jews, Greeks, and Romans alike, this office, that of untying and carrying the shoes of the master of the house or of a guest, was the well-known function of the lowest slave of the household.”

John draws a deliberately sharp contrast, not merely proclaiming that the coming Messiah is more powerful than he, but that He is so holy that John feels unworthy to serve Him in the lowest capacity possible. We should not easily dismiss that. It is something that John – having faithfully fulfilled all that God asked of him – still felt so far beneath even the lowest office in God’s house. Yet if that was true, how much less worthy are the objects of John’s warning – the Pharisees and Sadducees – who have not faithfully executed their divine mandate and instead unfaithfully abused their power?

Later, a different John will see the same One that the Baptist spoke of. He later wrote,  “Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders.  In a loud voice they sang: “Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!”  Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, singing: “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!”” So great is Jesus Christ the Lamb of God, and so worthy of honor. 

It is no wonder that John feels unworthy to serve Him. It is rather a very great wonder that God allows us to serve Him in even the most off-hand ways, let alone in direct ministry. Truly, we are privileged far more than John, for we carry something far greater than His sandals. We carry His Name! 

The highest form of worship is the worship of unselfish Christian service. The greatest form of praise is the sound of consecrated feet seeking out the lost and helpless.

Billy Graham

APPLICATION: Worship

Consider how God has honoured you. Worship Him accordingly.

The apostle Paul, speaking to the crowd gathered at the synagogue in Pisidian  Antioch,  said, “Before the coming of Jesus, John preached repentance and baptism to all the people of Israel.  As John was completing his work, he said: ‘Who do you think I am? I am not that one. No, but he is coming after me, whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.’” 

From that, we can know that when John made that statement, it was toward the very end of his ministry. That’s an important clue to understanding why John was saying that as he rebuked the Pharisees and Sadducees who were now showing up in the crowds.  After insulting them and warning them that judgment was at hand, he said, “I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”  

John’s comment about the one who comes after him (which could only be Messiah) gives both weight and reason for his recent harsh rebuke of the Jewish spiritual leadership. For not only is judgment at hand, but the judge Himself is the one coming – and John’s knows his opportunity to warn them is growing short. He is therefore prompted to speak not merely out of the truth of the matter, but the urgency also. In modern parlance, the stakes could not be higher or the time more opportune. His poignant warning becomes all the more succinct. 

In it, John gives seven reasons why the Jewish leadership ought to be earnestly repentant. The first of those reasons is that the one to come is more powerful than John. 

Now John had not demonstrated a lot of power in the sense of working miracles – in fact, John never performed a miracle. But he did have power. In fact, it was the power of his message that caused people to stream out to the desert to see him to start with. Of this we cannot doubt; John preached with power! That power was so great it even stirred the Jewish leadership to come out to see him. Surely such a fact could not be lost in the irony of how so harshly John addressed them. 

No doubt they felt a strong conviction even as he spoke these words. But feeling conviction and acting on that conviction are not the same thing – and the essence of John’s phrase is to that very point. He knows Messiah is coming very soon, and he knows the leadership before him are not ready at all. 

It is time for the most crucial of crucial conversations. A more poignant moment is hard to imagine. If they’ve felt convicted now (yet are fixing to avoid acting on it), then what will happen should they wait to meet Him? Then their conviction will not be mere heartfelt prompting, but an inescapable sentence of destruction. 

Repentance is never something to be put off. In fact, the closer we get to the Lord the more we sense the urgency of being truly ready to meet Him. Therefore, repentance in the kingdom of God is not something one has done once, long ago. Instead, it becomes a way of life, and all the more so the closer we draw to Him. 

I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation!

The Apostle Paul (2Corinthians 6:2)

APPLICATION: Intentionality

Ask the Lord to show you the fruitfulness of your life. What do you see?