Luke 3
Isaiah prophesied about John
In the 15th year of Tiberius Caesar’s reign Pontius Pilate was governor over Judea while Herod oversaw Galilee, Pilip (Herod’s brother) oversaw Ituraea & Trachonitis, and Lysanias oversaw Abilene. At that time Annas and Caiaphas were the high priests, and it was then that God spoke to John (Zacharias’s son) in the wilderness. He traveled to all the districts surrounding the Jordan, preaching immersion and a changing of the mind to be forgiven for missing the mark. This is just like Isaiah the prophet wrote:
Someone cries out in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the the road for the Ruler. Straighten his paths. All the divots should be filled, and all the mountains and hills should be flattened. Crooked things will be straightened, and bumpy roads will be smoothed. Everyone will witness God’s salvation.
John preaches change
So when the crowds went to be immersed by him, he would tell them,
“You sons of snakes! Who warned you to run away from the coming anger? In light of the anger, you should be fruitful and maintain a changed mind. Don’t tell yourselves, ‘We’re Abraham’s descendants,’ because if God wanted to, he could make these rocks give birth to Abraham’s descendants! There’s already an axe resting against the roots of the trees so that all the trees that don’t produce good fruit can be chopped down and burned.”
The crowds questioned him asking, “Then what should we do?” And he would answer them,
“Anyone who has two shirts should share with the people who doesn’t have any, and whoever has food should do the same.”
Even some tax collectors came to be immersed. They asked him, “Teacher, what should we do?” And he told them,
“Only collect the amount you’ve been ordered to collect.”
Some soldiers asked him, “And what about us? What should we do?” And he told them,
“Don’t use force to take anyone’s money, don’t accuse anyone who’s innocent, and be content with your salaries.”
Because everyone was in such a state of anticipation, they all wondered if John was the Chosen One. John addressed them and said,
“I immerse you in water, but someone else is coming who’s more important than me—I’m not even worthy to unstrap his sandals—He will immerse you in the Sacred Ambition and fire. He’ll use his pitchfork to meticulously collect all the wheat into his barn, and he’ll burn all the scraps with an unstoppable fire.”
Along with many other encouragements and challenges, he also preached the good news to the people. But when he reprimanded Herod (the overseer) for all the oppressive things he did including Herodias (his brother’s wife), Herod had John arrested and thrown into prison.
God claims Jesus as his son when he’s immersed
When everyone else was getting immersed, Jesus also became immersed. And while he was praying, heaven opened up and the Sacred Ambition physically descended upon him kind of like a dove, and a voice came from heaven saying,
“You are my Son. I love you, and I am very proud of you”
Jesus was about 30 years old when he began his ministry, and this is his lineage traced back to God: