Luke 3:15-20 Baptism of Fire
Format for Your Devotions
Instructions: Do not read my example devotion until you have completed your own devotional time in the scriptures. Reading my thoughts first may limit your own understanding. Let the Holy Spirit speak to you alone before looking to see what anyone else has to say, whether it is me, a Bible commentary, or a friend. Let God speak to you before you let another person speak to you. I have provided a format, but modify it to fit your needs. For example, I usually combine my application and prayer together talking to God about the application to my own life. You can go through this devotion process mentally, speaking out loud, or in writing as you wish. Don’t worry if you are not following this process exactly. Sometimes, I add extra information and sometimes I emphasize one part more than others. However, you should always think about what you learn about God from this passage.
Step 1: Pray–Ask for the Holy Spirit’s guidance first of all and that God may reveal the lessons that He wants you to have that day. Request that God protect you from Satan’s distractions (and the devil will try to distract you whether it is pinching the baby or putting you to sleep). Ask to see God more clearly as you read and think about the passage.
Step 2: Read the passage–Read to get an overview of the information first. Then start looking at specific parts after the first reading. You may read a larger or smaller section than I have here because you do not have to follow my organization at all.
Step 3: Understand the passage–You can summarize, ask and answer your own questions about the passage, visualize the story, analyze the characters, and relate this passage to other scriptures and personal experiences.
Step 4: What does this reveal about God?–What do you learn about the Father, Son, and/or Holy Spirit from this passage?
Step 5: Apply this to your own life.
Step 6: Prayer
My Example Devotion: June 24, 2018 Luke 3:15-20
Note: In the devotion examples, I leave my questions and thought processes in the text because I am trying to demonstrate that a devotional time is a dialogue with God about what you are reading from His word. As such, any questions or ideas that you have should be explored by talking it out with God. These example devotions are not my attempts to teach you what the meaning of a particular scripture is. They are an attempt to teach you the process of devotions, which is a combination of prayer and Bible study where you explore ideas with God as you read His word.
As the people were in expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Christ, John answered them all, saying, “I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.” So with many other exhortations he preached good news to the people. But Herod the tetrarch, who had been reproved by him for Herodias, his brother’s wife, and for all the evil things that Herod had done, added this to them all, that he locked up John in prison.
(Understanding the Text) John is hard for me to identify with. It’s not just his weird lifestyle and clothing. It’s the way he talked to people calling them out directly for their sins and exhorting them to be baptized, actually baptizing people, humbly claiming to be as a slave to the one following, and then threatening them with judgment while still being popular with the people. John is a study of contradictions. He spent most of his young adult life in the wilderness, yet he was able to communicate his message to the multitudes with power and charisma. People were drawn to him and his message even though, as Guzik says, he looked, sounded, and acted weird. All I can think right now is that John’s extra dose of the Spirit resulted in an extra dose of charisma that drew people to him. Maybe he needed to stay in the wilderness until the launch of his mission because of that charisma. He’s just a man that I have a hard time understanding. In some ways, I can understand Jesus more than John.
The people were focused on Messiah and so they thought that John might be the Messiah. In the Old Testament times, they would have just assumed that John was a prophet, but in New Testament times, they were looking for Messiah. Why? Did any of them understand Daniel’s time prophecies? Or was it simply the feeling in the air? Simeon had been prophetically shown that he would not die before seeing the Messiah. Were there others moved by the Spirit to look for the Messiah even before John appeared on the scene? John only appeared about 5-6 months before Jesus (SDA commentary timeline), so John did not initiate this general searching for the Messiah. Instead, he directed and focused it.
John’s message was based on Old Testament prophesies of the Messiah, and therefore, mixed up the first and second comings together. John knew that the Messiah would give two baptisms: the Holy Spirit and fire, but the way he presented these baptisms was together with judgment. I have always thought that the baptism of Holy Spirit and fire referred only to Pentecost, but it could also be two separate baptisms: the Pentecost coming of the Holy Spirit which we now receive at our water baptism, and when Jesus comes again, His glory that destroys evil also destroys our own sinful bodies molding new sinless physical forms for us. Could it be that everyone and everything is destroyed in the glory of Jesus coming, but those who are connected to Him receive a new creation through that connection as their bodies are destroyed? Is the second coming a baptism by fire where we die and arise reborn? (Note: This was just an idea that I was exploring during my morning devotion. It was not worth pursuing past this devotion because the Bible itself does not speak of the process behind the glorification of our bodies.)
John is preaching the judgment and that the Jews are unworthy and should repent, yet this is called good news. I guess that is because John is also preaching the coming of the Messiah. The SDA commentary says “John’s appointed task was to rouse men’s minds from the slumber of centuries , to fire their hearts with hope that a new day was about to dawn, and to impel them to prepare for the Coming One–the Desire of all ages. In this work he was eminently successful. In fact, he stirred even the Jewish leaders to investigate his message (see John 1:19-25). ‘All men’ knew about John, and all who possibly could do so came to hear him.”
John only had a short time of preaching before he offended the leader so much that he locked him up. How long was it? About 2 years (SDA commentary page 720). Where was he when he was arrested? The SDA commentary says “The fact that he was imprisoned by Herod Antipas implies that John was preaching on the Peraea side of the Jordan River at the time of his arrest.” Josephus said that John was kept at the fortress of Machaerus in Peraea, east of the Dead Sea. In 1807, archaeologists discovered this fortress and the dungeon’s ruins. On the other hand, some scholars think that the birthday party was in Tiberias, so they think John was held there (SDA Commentary).
John had not been shown that he would be locked up and die. He had only been shown that he was to herald the coming of the Messiah. His understanding of the next parts of God’s plan was limited. He followed God as best he could to perform the mission that God had given him.
(Revelation of God) God approved of John’s job. John had been given an important job, yet in some ways he was deprived more than us. He did not receive the full enlightenment of Jesus’ teachings. He was not allowed to become Jesus’ disciple. He was allowed to get so close to the destination he desired, yet he was not allowed to actually enter in. Jesus said “Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.”(Matthew 11:11). I will worry more about what this means later when I cover it in Luke, but in some ways John was deprived. He must have been so alone in his life, except for his Spirit-connection to God. He lived alone and died alone. He had people who loved him: his parents and his disciples, but like Moses, he did not enter the “promised land” but only saw it from afar. He was given the privilege of baptizing Jesus, but not following Jesus. Jesus gave him the respect of being on an equal footing, yet John never had the joy of working with the ONE that he would never dare to claim equality with. So close and yet so far.
(Application / Prayer) Sometimes, I worry that I do not have the complete message of the Bible and that I make mistakes. I worry about being wrong. However, John was able to perform a remarkable work even though his understanding of Messianic prophecies was incomplete. God used him and gave him respect even though John was preaching a limited message. I know that my message is not complete, but take the words that I speak representing You and create something beautiful from them.