An audio version of each devotion will be posted on our church podcast “Life Together at CRPC,” which is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube.
(Ben Chidester)
Matthew 3:1-12 In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, 2 “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” 3 For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said,
“The voice of one crying in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord;
make his paths straight.’”
4 Now John wore a garment of camel’s hair and a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. 5 Then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan were going out to him, 6 and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.
7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. 9 And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. 10 Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
11 “I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 12 His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
————————————
During the times of the Old Testament, when the people of God strayed away from Him, God sent prophets and put a message in their mouths, to call the people back. Elijah was one of the greatest of such prophets; he was called by the Lord to turn Israel back from worshiping other Gods. Isaiah was another, who was called to warn the people of the coming exile into Babylon, if they would not repent of their wayward hearts and their injustice. The prophets often spoke of a day of judgment that was coming — the Day of the Lord — and exhorted the people to prepare their hearts for it. In the midst of that, they prophesied too of hope, of a coming salvation, but one that could be grasped or understood only dimly, at a distance.
John the Baptist was a prophet of the same mold, and he enters the scene here in Matthew 3. He had a similar message: “Repent! Turn back your hearts to God!” He even claimed the same cry that Isaiah had cried generations before him: “Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight!” His message was in the same vein. Even his dress — his distinctive, odd garment of hair with a leather belt around his waist — indicated that he had been called to the same prophetic role. The great prophet Elijah had worn the exact same garb before him (2 Kings 1:8).
But among this line of prophets, John was unique. As we will read later in Matthew’s Gospel account (Matthew 11), Jesus said of him, that among those born of women there were none who were greater than John the Baptist. What made John so great? Was it his holiness? His character? No, rather, it was his unique role among the prophets. For John was not simply another prophet in a line of prophets; he was, in fact the culmination of them and of their prophetic message.
He was the culmination, because now, the one of whom all those prophets spoke was here, standing right before him. That great Day of the Lord was here. All that Isaiah and Elijah had been speaking of was now coming to pass. And John was bringing their ministry — the prophetic ministry of the Old Testament — to a close, as the office of the prophet, which John had carried on, passed from him to its final bearer, Jesus Christ. Even though John held such an exalted role, as the final prophet of the Old Covenant, tying together the message of all those who had gone before him, in comparison to Jesus and his message, he was as nothing. He was not even worthy to untie his sandals. Because John’s prophetic message was only the lead up — the opening act, so to speak — whereas Jesus and his message of the Gospel was the main event, the substance itself to which John’s message pointed.
The message of God’s of grace has arrived in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Have you heeded the cry of John the Baptist, to turn your heart to the Lord? Perhaps you have already put your faith in Jesus. Is your heart prepared, even today, to meet him anew? Today will have its challenges that will require the mercies of God that are new every morning. Is your heart ready for the new supplies of grace that he longs to give you today? In each of us, there are places in our hearts where darkness still lingers. Ask Jesus to root this darkness out. Ask him to make your heart a home for him; that is his longing and joy. Ask him to let his Gospel of grace permeate and shine into all the depths and dark places. Ask him to make your heart ready for the grace and love that he would meet you with, even today.