Luke 3:1-6 — Preppin’ for Jesus

READ THIS: Luke 3:1-6

1 In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar—when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and Traconitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene— 2 during the high-priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. 3 He went into all the country around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 4 As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet: 

“A voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him. 5 Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill made low. The crooked roads shall become straight, the rough ways smooth. 6 And all people will see God’s salvation."

WHAT’S THIS MEAN, ANYWAY?

After the Christmas story and the story of Jesus’s time as a kid, this passage jumps ahead a bunch of years!  It’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for… Jesus is starting His ministry! But wait… we’re still talking about John? I thought Jesus was the main character here!

Don’t worry, Jesus is about to come in, but we can’t take for granted the importance of John and this section! Before Jesus began His ministry, John had a very important role: he was called to “prepare the way for the Lord.” Many prophets for hundreds of years spoke about people who would come and prepare the way for the Messiah. In a way, these same prophets were preparing people for Jesus in the first place, but John specifically also prepared the way! These verses said that John did this by encouraging people to repent (turning away from sin and toward God) and to ask God for forgiveness. He encouraged people to symbolize this act through baptism.

John’s job was to prepare people for Jesus so that their hearts and minds would be able to receive Him, and even though Jesus lived His life here on earth, loved us perfectly, and finished His work by conquering death and sin forever, we can actually still prepare the way for the Lord today! Believers in Jesus know that He will be coming back again one day, and the way we can prepare for that is by modeling repentance in our own lives and calling others to do the same!

THINK ABOUT IT:

1. Why do you think Jesus, the King of Kings, needs people to prepare the way for Him? Couldn’t He just show up?

2. How can you prepare yourself and those around you for when Jesus comes back again?

TRY THIS:

If you have some time for some extra reading, check out Isaiah 40, the passage where the quoted prophecy comes from!

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