Jesus Leads by a humbled example

Introduction

I want you all to take a moment and try to come up with your description of what the best gospel preacher would be like. If we could just pick all the qualities of a person who was a famous preacher, what would they be?

Would they have a source of lots of money to help people?

Would they have access to food so that they could feed those who need it?

Would they have an extremely cool voice that sounded awesome when they talk about Jesus?

How would they dress? would they dress in a way that attracted people to them and what they said?

The New International Version Chapter 3

In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea 2 and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

This is the man that God chose to prepare the world for the perfect, almighty, son of God to begin His history changing ministry. John the baptist was chosen by God to be a preacher in the same area that Jesus would be preaching soon.

Thousands of people came from all around to find john the baptist to hear the message that God gave Him to preach.

John’s message

Johns message was simple. - REPENT FOR THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN HAS COME NEAR.

Repent

The word repent had a very specific and practical use during this time. We dont use the word repent all that much. you hear it a lot in church, but its easy to talk about it and never really understand what it means. The word describes an action. I want to help explain this word’s meaning with an example. Imagine you are walking to go hang out with one of your friends. while you are walking in that direction you decide “ya know what, i am actually NOT going to hang out with my friend today”. Then you stop walking towards your friend’s house, turn completely around, and begin walking back towards the direction you came in the complete opposite direction that you were walking before.

repentance is NOT thinking about turning around.

repentance is NOT slowing down

Repentance is not considering weather or not you should stop.

Repentance is the act of coming to a complete stop of the direction you were going in, turning to the opposite direction, and walking in the opposite direction.

For the kingdom of heaven has come near

kingdom of heaven has come near

The act of repentance was not just because. It was actually a response to the second half of John’s message. his call was for people to turn away from the path they were on and begin following God’s plan for the world. He was preparing the world for the most incredible person who would ever walk it. Jesus. His message was one of preparation. He was urging the world to GET READY because the kingdom of heaven is no longer far off. NO! it is right here and your about to see it. So that you are ready to be a part of it, leave your life and prepare to follow HIM.

Baptizing

Confessing their sins, they were baptized by Him in the Jordan river

After people made the decision to turn away from their lives that were against God’s plan, this is what they did to express to the world that they were going to live their lives for God.

Baptism is such an important part of following Jesus. I want to be honest with yall. If you are a christian and you have not been baptized yet, you need to do that. THis is what baptism is.

it is a-representation of life before Jesus, putting that old life to death, and rising again in new life WITH AND BECAUSE OF GOD.