John the Baptist’s role was to prepare the people for the coming of the Messiah. He did this by preaching the repentance of sins and baptizing people for the remission of their sins. John challenged the people to prepare themselves for the coming of the Messiah by turning away from sin and being baptized as a symbol of repentance. John held no power or influence in the Jewish political system, but he delivered his message with the force of authority.
It reads in Luke 3:1-20 easy to read>This report is about John, the son of Zechariah. It happened when Tiberius Caesar had been the Roman ruler for 15 years. Pontius Pilate was the Roman ruler of Judea. Herod had authority over the region of Galilee. Herod’s brother Philip had authority over Iturea and Trachonitis. Lysanias had authority over Abilene. At this time, the leaders of the priests were Annas and Caiaphas. John was living in the wilderness. While he was there, God spoke to him. John went to many places near the Jordan River and spoke a message from God. ‘You have done many wrong things,’ he taught everybody. ‘You must turn away from them and change how you live. Then God will forgive you and I will baptize you.’ The prophet Isaiah wrote this message from God in his book: ‘Somebody’s voice is shouting in the wilderness, “The Lord will come soon, so prepare a way for him to follow. Make the paths straight for him. Fill in every valley and make every mountain and hill flat. Take away every bend so that the road is straight. Take away all the rocks so that the road is flat. Then everyone will see how God can save them.” ’ Crowds of people were going out into the wilderness. They wanted John to baptize them. He told them, ‘You are like dangerous snakes! God is angry. You are trying to run away from him. But he will soon punish people like you. You have to show that you are sorry. Change how you live. Stop doing things that God does not like. Do not begin to say to yourselves, “We are in the family of Abraham. God will surely not punish us.” Listen! God can take these stones and make children for Abraham out of them! You are like trees that have bad fruit. God has an axe ready to use. He will cut down every tree that does not make good fruit. He will throw those trees into the fire.’ ‘So what should we do?’ the crowd asked. John answered, ‘If you have two shirts, give one away. Give it to someone who does not have even one shirt. If you have some food, give some of it away. Give some to someone who has no food.’ In the crowd, there were men who took taxes from people. These men also wanted John to baptize them. They asked him, ‘Teacher, what should we do?’ John told them, ‘You must take the right amount of money from people. You must not take more money than the rules say you should take.’ Then some soldiers asked John, ‘What about us? What should we do?’ John replied, ‘Do not rob people of their money. Do not say that a person is guilty if he has not done anything wrong. You must not take money for yourself in that way. You should be happy with the money that you receive for your work.’ At this time people were thinking, ‘Is John the Messiah that God has promised?’ They were all hoping that he might be. John knew what they were thinking. He said to them, ‘I baptize you with water. But someone else is coming soon. He is much greater than I am. I am not good enough even to undo his shoes for him. This other person will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. He is like a farmer that brings the wheat home from his field. He uses a special tool to throw the wheat up in the air. He does this to make the wheat seeds separate from what remains. Then he cleans his yard. He carefully stores all the seeds to keep them safe. But he burns everything else in a great fire that nobody can put out.’ John said many more things to the people. He was telling them the good news about how God could change their lives. One day John told Herod, the ruler, that it was wrong for him to marry Herodias. Before that, she had been the wife of Herod’s brother. John also told Herod that he had done many other bad things. So then Herod did an even worse thing; he locked John up in prison.