John began to preach a baptism of life-change leading to forgiveness of sins. Isn't that what we need? "A baptism of repentance for the remission of sins"(NKJV). A change of direction, mentally and behaviorally, where we give public evidence that we're doing it. Repentance takes place within. Baptism is an outward expression that connects the personal with community. We've got to deal with our relationship with God, to turn back to God. We can't help ourselves.
John seemed to have a low mercy gift. Little patience for throngs of people coming. What would he have done at a Billy Graham crusade? Change your life, not your skin (thinking cell phones and their skins...).
Tax men, Soldiers, and more, came. John taught, "If you have two coats, give one away. Collect only what's required; don't charge exorbitant interest rates. No blackmail. Be content with what you've got. All wisdom and teaching from the prophets. Had not remembered that John got so specific with the folks as Luke tells the story. That's why they began to wonder if John was Messiah. Nope.
"The main character will ignite a kingdom life, a fire, the Holy Spirit within you, changing you from the inside out...make a clean sweep of your lives, placing everything in its proper place before God." John imprisoned, and then Jesus is baptized...different from Matt and Mark.
Jesus' baptism: "You are my Son, chosen and marked by my love, pride of my life."
Luke's genealogy goes back to Adam, to God. Includes only men.
2 Corinthians 4-6
"We keep everything we do and say in the open, the whole truth on display, so that those who want to can see and judge for themselves in the presence of God."
"All we are is messengers, errand runners from Jesus for you."
"God bless and keep you. God smile on you and gift you. God look you full in the face and make you prosper."
Clay pots...unadorned and ordinary. "Our lives are at constant risk for Jesus' sake, which makes Jesus' life all the more evident in us." Have you taken any risks for God lately? Ever?
Resurrection bodies. Puts a little heaven in our hearts so we'll not settle for less. What do you think about resurrection? Heaven? Heaven, by definition according to Peterson, is "inaccessible to our five senses. It's a reality that lies beyond us. But it's also a reality that can be experienced in us." But we can taste it here.
Cheerfully pleasing God is the main thing. Christ's love has the first and last word in everything we do.
One man died for everyone. That puts everyone in the same boat. He included everyone in death so that everyone could be included in his life, a resurrection live, a far better life than people had lived on their own...now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start...God uses us to persuade men and women to drop their differences and enter into God's work of making things right between them.
Now is the right time to listen, the day to be helped.
6:11-13--what a beautiful commissioning and challenge, an invitation to living openly and expansively.
EP: "We live in a world awash in the fantasies of freedom. But the world is sadly lacking the experience of freedom. Living in the land of the free hasn't made us free. We live fenced-in lives. Lives that aren't wide open and spacious. This is true even in the church. Assembling people in churches to listen to proclamations about freedom hasn't made us free. For there are people in those churches who are in bondage to self, to materialism, to addictions, to power, to their jobs, to anger, to unforgiveness. When I center my life on myself, my freedom diminishes and the life I live is constricted, anxious, fenced in. But when I center on God, I realize vast freedoms and spontaneities in an open and expansive existence."
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