THE REAL DEAL

Can I pray for you in any way? Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com.
In Christ, Mark

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

** Become a Follower of The Christian Walk at http://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

 “I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and 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.”

Matthew 3:11-12

And this was his message: “After me comes the one more powerful than I, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I baptize you with water, but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

Mark 1:7-8

The people were waiting expectantly and were all wondering in their hearts if John might possibly be the Messiah. John answered them all, “I baptize you with water. But one who is more powerful than I will come, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” And with many other words John exhorted the people and proclaimed the good news to them.

Luke 3:15-18

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

John the Baptist was busy after emerging from the wilderness with a call for repentance. As we saw in yesterday’s devotion, crowds of people came to him, interested in being baptized and learning what they needed to do in order to produce the fruits of their repentance. And John was more than ready to give them what they requested, baptizing and teaching all about the importance of confession of sin and turning back toward being the people God desired them to be.

But although John was doing all these great things in the name of the Lord, he was only the opening act for the main event. For Jesus, the real deal was about to make His appearance on the ministry scene and John wanted everyone to know about it. Look again at our scripture passages with accounts from three of the four Gospels:

“I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and 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.”

Matthew 3:11-12

And this was his message: “After me comes the one more powerful than I, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I baptize you with water, but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

Mark 1:7-8

The people were waiting expectantly and were all wondering in their hearts if John might possibly be the Messiah. John answered them all, “I baptize you with water. But one who is more powerful than I will come, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” And with many other words John exhorted the people and proclaimed the good news to them.

Luke 3:15-18

Why was there this sense of urgency with John to make sure everyone knew that he was not to be the true center of their attention and affection?

Because the scriptures tell us that some of the people John was serving were thinking he might be the Messiah, something John wanted to clarify in a hurry.

And so he professed that although he was doing great things for God, the one who would come after him (Jesus, of course) would be more powerful, so much so that John would be completely subservient to Him. John wanted to make it clear that Jesus was at an entirely higher level than he was, so high a level that John didn’t see himself as even worthy enough to be at Jesus’ feet to untie His sandals. And as for baptism, Jesus wasn’t going to baptize with mere water like John did. Rather, Jesus was bringing a supernatural, spiritual baptism by way of the Holy Spirit, something that would be able to come from Him, not John.

Further, note that this powerful one who was coming would hold the very matter of judgment in His hands, separating the righteous (the good wheat) from the wicked (the chaff). The righteous would be taken into His presence like wheat into the barn while the wicked would face the fiery judgment of unquenchable fire, scorched to ash like the chaff.

Yes, the real deal was about to come onto the scene, the long awaited Messiah who had been predicted by the prophets so many years earlier. He would perform miracles and wonders that would make John’s work look trivial by comparison but ultimately, it was the promise of salvation and justification from sin that would define Jesus’ life as He bore the price all mankind deserved so that those who would then place their trust in Him would not perish but live forever (John 3:16).

Indeed, as Jesus Himself proclaimed, He was, is and will always be the Way and the Truth and the Life, the only One who can bring someone to God the Father (John 14:6).

In other words, Jesus was, is, and will always be the real deal.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark
PS: Please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com