John The Baptist
This week’s passage: Matthew 3:1-17 John The Baptist Matthew’s first mention of John the Baptist introduces him as a preacher in the wilderness of Judea who is preparing people to know Christ, his message proclaimed so boldly that people were coming from Jerusalem, Judea, and the region around the Jordan river, to see what he was about and to be baptized by him. However, Luke introduces us to John the Baptist before he is even conceived (Luke 1:5-25), and Jesus and John meet while they are both still in the womb…lets go back to that time for a moment. Zechariah was a priest in the days when Herod the Great ruled in Jerusalem. He and his wife Elizabeth were among those the bible says were upright in the sight of God because they followed His commandments and regulations. They are both old, and have no children because Elizabeth is barren. While Zechariah is in the temple praying and burning incense, he is visited by an angel who says he and Elizabeth...