Isaiah 40.3
A voice of one calling: ‘In the wilderness prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
In chapter 3 verse 3 of his gospel, Matthew tells us that this was about John the Baptist. All four gospels record the ministry of John, so it must be important. His work was all about repentance, telling people that they must turn from their sin. He did this before Jesus started his ministry, so John was the forerunner of Jesus the Messiah. Instead of Alpha, a friend of mine sometimes does a series of evangelistic seminars, called ‘Six weeks of Bad News, Six Weeks of Good News’. The bad news (John’s message, that the way we live reveals the rebellion in our hearts) has to come before the good news (Jesus’ message, that he came to give us new life). We can only recognise Jesus as the saviour we need if we first recognise our sin as the thing we need saving from.
Thank God that the bad news about sin becomes the good news about Jesus!
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