John the Baptist

John the Baptist Thompson 4Rhonda ThompsonTimothy T. GrannanTHL225 Lead - Basic Christian Beliefs5 May 2014The Story of Jesus and John the Baptist (Matthew 3: 1-17) In the third chapter of the Gospel according to Matthew, a well-known prophet named John the Baptist is going throughout the land preparing the people for God's kingdom. John went about the land of Judea preaching the coming of Lord, telling the people that they needed to "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come hear" (New International Version (NIV), Matt 3:2). John understood that he was sent to preach of the coming of Jesus, but he also understood that people might mistake him for their Savior, so he made it clear that, "I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more power than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire" (NIV, Matt 3:11).Baptism of Jesus by St. John the Baptist, with des...And when the Pharisees, a group of religious zealots who paid more attention to how things looked than the salvation of souls, and the Sadducees, who were not religious at all and did not believe in the resurrection, came to where John was baptizing, John immediately let them know that their ways of thinking were worthless if they did not believe in the coming of the kingdom of God (NIV, Matt 3:7-10). While John was baptizing Jesus came to him to be baptized. John recognized Jesus and almost committed a sin when he questioned why Jesus would need to be baptized by him, when it should be the other way around (NIV, Matt. 3:13-14). Jesus, understood John's apprehension and he let him know that things had to be this way for right now, but they would soon be changing. The...