Luke 3:1-20

¹In the fifteenth year of the rule of Caesar Tiberius--it was while Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea; Herod, ruler of Galilee; his brother Philip, ruler of Iturea and Trachonitis; Lysanias, ruler of Abilene;

²during the Chief-Priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas--John, Zachariah''s son, out in the desert at the time, received a message from God.

³He went all through the country around the Jordan River preaching a baptism of life-change leading to forgiveness of sins,

⁴as described in the words of Isaiah the prophet: Thunder in the desert! "Prepare God''s arrival! Make the road smooth and straight!a

⁵Every ditch will be filled in, Every bump smoothed out, The detours straightened out, All the ruts paved over.b

⁶Everyone will be there to see The parade of God''s salvation."c

⁷When crowds of people came out for baptism because it was the popular thing to do, John exploded: "Brood of snakes! What do you think you''re doing slithering down here to the river? Do you think a little water on your snakeskins is going to deflect God''s judgment?

⁸It''s your life that must change, not your skin. And don''t think you can pull rank by claiming Abraham as "father.'' Being a child of Abraham is neither here nor there--children of Abraham are a dime a dozen. God can make children from stones if he wants.d

⁹What counts is your life. Is it green and blossoming? Because if it''s deadwood, it goes on the fire."e

¹⁰The crowd asked him, "Then what are we supposed to do?"

¹¹"If you have two coats, give one away," he said. "Do the same with your food."f

¹²Tax men also came to be baptized and said, "Teacher, what should we do?"

¹³He told them, "No more extortion--collect only what is required by law."

¹⁴Soldiers asked him, "And what should we do?" He told them, "No shakedowns, no blackmail--and be content with your rations."g

¹⁵The interest of the people by now was building. They were all beginning to wonder, "Could this John be the Messiah?"

¹⁶But John intervened: "I''m baptizing you here in the river. The main character in this drama, to whom I''m a mere stagehand, will ignite the kingdom life, a fire, the Holy Spirit within you, changing you from the inside out.h

¹⁷He''s going to clean house--make a clean sweep of your lives. He''ll place everything true in its proper place before God; everything false he''ll put out with the trash to be burned."

¹⁸There was a lot more of this--words that gave strength to the people, words that put heart in them. The Message!

¹⁹But Herod, the ruler, stung by John''s rebuke in the matter of Herodias, his brother Philip''s wife,

²⁰capped his long string of evil deeds with this outrage: He put John in jail.