Study Desk

The Preaching of John the Baptist For fifteen years Emperor Tiberius had ruled that part of the world. Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was the ruler of Galilee. Herod's brother, Philip, was the ruler in the countries of Iturea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias was the ruler of Abilene. Annas and Caiaphas were the Jewish high priests. At that time God spoke to Zechariah's son John, who was living in the desert. So John went along the Jordan Valley, telling the people, "Turn back to God and be baptized! Then your sins will be forgiven." Isaiah the prophet wrote about John when he said, "In the desert someone is shouting, ‘Get the road ready for the Lord! Make a straight path for him. Fill up every valley and level every mountain and hill. Straighten the crooked paths and smooth out the rough roads. Then everyone will see the saving power of God.'" Crowds of people came out to be baptized, but John said to them, "You bunch of snakes! Who warned you to run from the coming judgment? Do something to show that you really have given up your sins. Don't start saying that you belong to Abraham's family. God can turn these stones into children for Abraham. An ax is ready to cut the trees down at their roots. Any tree that doesn't produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into a fire." The crowds asked John, "What should we do?" John told them, "If you have two coats, give one to someone who doesn't have any. If you have food, share it with someone else." When tax collectors came to be baptized, they asked John, "Teacher, what should we do?" John told them, "Don't make people pay more than they owe." Some soldiers asked him, "And what about us? What do we have to do?" John told them, "Don't force people to pay money to make you leave them alone. Be satisfied with your pay." Everyone became excited and wondered, "Could John be the Messiah?" John said, "I am just baptizing with water. But someone more powerful is going to come, and I am not good enough even to untie his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His threshing fork is in his hand, and he is ready to separate the wheat from the husks. He will store the wheat in his barn and burn the husks with a fire that never goes out." In many different ways John preached the good news to the people. But to Herod the ruler, he said, "It was wrong for you to take Herodias, your brother's wife." John also said that Herod had done many other bad things. Finally, Herod put John in jail, and this was the worst thing he had done. While everyone else was being baptized, Jesus himself was baptized. Then as he prayed, the sky opened up, and the Holy Spirit came down upon him in the form of a dove. A voice from heaven said, "You are my own dear Son, and I am pleased with you." When Jesus began to preach, he was about thirty years old. Everyone thought he was the son of Joseph. But his family went back through Heli,

When these messengers came to Jesus, they said, "John the Baptist sent us to ask, ‘Are you the one we should be looking for? Or are we supposed to wait for someone else?'"

Everyone had been listening to John. Even the tax collectors had obeyed God and had done what was right by letting John baptize them.

But the Pharisees and the experts in the Law of Moses refused to obey God and be baptized by John.

John the Baptist did not go around eating and drinking, and you said, "John has a demon in him!"

Herod the ruler heard about all that was happening, and he was worried. Some people were saying that John the Baptist had come back to life.

They answered, "Some say that you are John the Baptist or Elijah or a prophet from long ago who has come back to life."

Until the time of John the Baptist, people had to obey the Law of Moses and the Books of the Prophets. But since God's kingdom has been preached, everyone is trying hard to get in.

Who gave John the right to baptize? Was it God in heaven or merely some human being?"

And we can't say that it was merely some human who gave John the right to baptize. The crowd will stone us to death, because they think John was a prophet."

So they told Jesus, "We don't know who gave John the right to baptize."

They asked him, "Why are you baptizing people, if you are not the Messiah or Elijah or the Prophet?"

John told them, "I use water to baptize people. But here with you is someone you don't know.

John said this as he was baptizing east of the Jordan River in Bethany.

I didn't know who he was. But I came to baptize you with water, so that everyone in Israel would see him.

Before this I didn't know who he was. But the one who sent me to baptize with water had told me, "You will see the Spirit come down and stay on someone. Then you will know that he is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit."

Later, Jesus and his disciples went to Judea, where he stayed with them for a while and was baptizing people.

John had not yet been put in jail. He was at Aenon near Salim, where there was a lot of water, and people were coming there for John to baptize them.

They went to John and said, "Rabbi, you spoke about a man when you were with him east of the Jordan. He is now baptizing people, and everyone is going to him."

Jesus knew that the Pharisees had heard that he was winning and baptizing more followers than John was.