Saturday Reading: Matthew 3:1-6
Key Verse: Matthew 3:6
6 And they were baptized by him in the Jordan, confessing their sins.
Devotion:
When some people describe John as being in the middle of the desert, it draws a picture of a man in the middle of nowhere with nothing around him but sand and sun. But in order for John to be able to attract so many people, I’m sure that there must have been things nearby otherwise how would anyone have heard of him to start with. I doubt he was in a built up area because he was depending on God for everything – but his semi-isolation did not stop him from preaching the Word of God and letting people know about the coming of Christ. He continuously preached that people should repent of their sins... how many churches do not get round to teaching us that nowadays but would rather concentrate on God’s love and mercy.
We always need to remember that we do need to confess our sins to God. Christ came to give us a way whereby we would be sure that our sins are forgiven, but that does not mean that will happen without us confessing our sins in the first place. Right from the beginning God has required that we do confess our sins to Him in one way or another. The offering of sacrifices was how it started but man soon enough corrupted that by rewriting the rules of sacrifices to suit himself. One rule man cannot ever rewrite is that our sins have been covered by Christ’s sacrifice of His own life on the cross; but in order for them to be forgiven, we have to first admit to them!
John made sure that people understood just what repentance meant too. It was not the act of saying sorry, being forgiven and then going on in life in your normal manner. Repentance means that we come forward knowing that what we have done wrong is wrong and that by admitting to it we are saying that we are now going to do our best to not go there again. Repentance is a life-changing action, not a simple sorry. John made sure that his whole life was dedicated to making sure that people knew that so that when they confessed to Christ, they would rest in Him and His ways.
Points to Ponder:
How many times do you say you are sorry?
Have you repented to Christ?
