December 29, 2023

Luke 3:15-20 (HCSB)
15 Now the people were waiting expectantly, and all of them were debating in their minds whether John might be the Messiah.16 John answered them all, “I baptize you with water, but One is coming who is more powerful than I. I am not worthy to untie the strap of His sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 17 His winnowing shovel is in His hand to clear His threshing floor and gather the wheat into His barn, but the chaff He will burn up with a fire that never goes out.” 18 Then, along with many other exhortations, he proclaimed good news to the people. 19 But Herod the tetrarch, being rebuked by him about Herodias, his brother’s wife, and about all the evil things Herod had done, 20 added this to everything else—he locked John up in prison.

Pastor HD Jones
One of John’s greatest characteristics is humility. It is so important to know “who you are” but also understand “who you are not”. Sometimes Christians have false humility like when someone sings a beautiful song and then they talk about how bad they did. John knew he was not the Messiah and he also understood his role to point people to the Messiah. By the way, we have that same responsibility today. How are you doing in pointing people to Jesus? Another interesting point in this set of scripture is John’s description of how the Messiah will sterilize this world... “the chaff will be burned up”. In preparation for the Passover Meal, the children will help their parents clean the house of leaven (yeast). Then, they will take all of the leaven, put it into a brown bag and set it on fire. We look forward to the day God cleanses our world forever with fire. Until that day, we are to “work out our own salvation”... that means clean the leaven out of your life. As we look forward to a New Year, that would be a great resolution.