I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I’ve been looking forward to the chatroom tonight especially, because we have finally made it to the climax. John the Baptist announces the coming of the Messiah, and the Messiah comes to offer redemption for mankind.
First, I would love to hear your summaries of John the Baptist’s life. What did you learn that you did not know before? What do you think is the most important thing to understand about John the Baptist?
Second, name one practical application of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. What does it mean to our lives? Cite verses to support your answer.
I have read about John the baptist before, but i didn’t realize how much he did. He did everything and anything to preach the gospel and to show other that Jesus was coming . He prepared the people for Jesus’s coming.
Great point! I tend to think of him as a minor Biblical character, because his ministry was overshadowed by Jesus, but he did so much! He was the first prophet after 400 years without prophets, and paved the way for the coming kingdom. What are some ways in which he prepared the people for the coming of the Christ?
He prepared them through his teaching, while doing predictive prophecies. He also prepared them through baptism.
Mark 1:4-5 mentions that.
Great answer! His predictive prophecies were about the coming Messiah and His kingdom. He encouraged repentance in light of the coming kingdom. I think one of the applications for today is his call for repentance. We should live in repentance knowing that Jesus is returning, just like the Jews needed to repent knowing that He was coming for the first time. Also, we learn what repentance is from John the Baptist. In Matthew 3:8 he says: “Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.” Repentance is not just feeling sorry, but is changing actions. See also 2 Corinthians 7:10.
I loved 2 Corinthians 7:10. Its showing us how we can have grief in two different ways but one produces death while the other produces repentance that leads to salvation without regret. Its shows how meaning full repentance is. Jesus gave his life for us so we can have it , some people us repentance carelessly while its a very meaning full thing.
It’s easy to feel sorry for our sins, but it is not always easy to turn from them.
very true
John the Baptist truly did pave the way for the coming Messiah, Jesus. I love the analogy of the invitation. He announced that the Messiah and by doing so he allowed the people to prepare for this.I never thought about the fact that he may not have been as recognized because of the coming of Jesus. I love the faith of John the Baptist. I love the verse that tells us that he leapt in his mother’s womb when Mary, who was pregnant with Jesus, was visiting his mother! I think the most important thing we can learn from John the Baptist is to be faithful. We should all have faith like this. Before he was born, he knew that Jesus the Messiah was coming and that He(Jesus) was his savior. His faith was so great that although he wasn’t as recognized, he was still joyous! John was faithful from the moment he was in His mother’s womb until the moment he died!
Isn’t he amazing? I had a new appreciation for John the Baptist after studying for this book. He truly did give his whole life to God. There are many people in the Bible who gave their lives over to God, but I think the way John the Baptist dedicated himself is unique because he literally lost his following and his ministry shortly after Jesus came on the scene. He was completely happy with this situation.
One more thing I would add (that is encouraging to me) is that even John the Baptist struggled. Matthew 11:2 says: “When John, who was in prison, heard about the deeds of the Messiah, he sent his disciples to ask him, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?’” Even though he had GREAT faith, there were still times when he allowed his present situation to create doubt. If John can overcome his doubt, we can too.
I completely agree! It is encouraging to know that even heroes of faith struggled! It can inspire us to rise up and allow our faith to grow and become stronger instead of giving up!
Beautifully put Kayla! <3 🙂
Soooo sorry I’m late. I forgot, we were watching a movie and then doing family bible time. I promise I wasn’t just skipping!
I’ve never forgotten the chatroom 😉 Glad you’re on now!!
ha ha
Is there a link to see the entries for the creative writing contest?
I posted the first place winner, but not all of the entries.
alright thanks!
John was promised to be born to Zechariah and Elizabeth. John would come to earth to prepare the people for the coming of Jesus, the Messiah. Even when John was in the womb he lept for joy at the approach of Jesus. As John grew he became strong and lived in the wilderness until his time had come to preach. John baptized with the baptism of repentance, preached, rebuked, and prepared. He even had the privilege of baptizing Jesus to fulfill scripture. John was thrown into prison by Herod for rebuking him for taking his brother’s wife, Herodias. Then John was beheaded for the sake of Herod’s word which he gave to Herodias’s daughter, for Herod promised her anything she wanted. And that was the end of John the Baptist’s life.
Well I think that it’s interesting that such a wicked, powerful man like Herod would even care if he broke his promise to Herodias’s daughter, when he didn’t really care about any form of morality. I mean, of course he wanted John dead anyway, but prior verses said he feared the people [I guess Herodias was scarier to him (which is kind of funny to think about)]
I think that is important to understand how humble John was, because he definately could have boasted about his position. I mean, he was Christ’s cousin!! (that would be pretty amazing!)
We see an interesting contrast between John’s humility, and the pride and wickedness of Herod, don’t we? I think it’s fascinating that Herod liked to listen to John while he was in prison. Mark 6:19-20 says: “Herodias had a grudge against him and wanted to put him to death and could not do so; for Herod was afraid of John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and he kept him safe. And when he heard him, he was very perplexed; but he used to enjoy listening to him.” This shows that at this time, Herod had SOME sort of a moral compass. Of course, he was not repentant, but he did believe in God and had some kind of fear of the Lord.
But…I would guess that Herod kept his promise to Herodias’ daughter because like you said, he was afraid of Herodias…but also because he made the promise in front of his friends! He would surely appear weak if he not deliver on his promise.
It just goes to show that even a sinful man ( like Herod) realized the importance of keeping your word, which is sometimes hard.
I always enjoy your comments, Belle. I think Humility is a BIG lesson we can learn from John the Baptist. Especially in todays society. It tells us to focus solely on ourselves and put others second while the Word of God says quite the opposite.
I believe that there are many things that we could learn from John the baptist, but one is that even though we are Jesus’s messengers, we are not Jesus. He is still greater than us. John showed this in many ways. He wore camel skin, ate honeycomb, and said he was not worthy to even tie Jesus’s shoes.
Great point! We will be exalted by God if we remain faithful (James 4:10), but we will not be exalted and worshiped like Jesus will be (Phil 2:9-10). That is why we must decrease and let Jesus increase in our lives…the glory that we will have will be given to us by God.
If Jesus had not died and been raised we could not be saved. 1 Corinthians 15:3-29
Yes! If Jesus had not been raised from the dead then “your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins.” (1 Cor 15:17)
“The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Cor 15:57)
Wouldn’t it have bee intimidating to preach to Herod? He had the power to put John to death, but John didn’t soften his message. That should encourage us to be bold in teaching about Jesus Christ.
Perhaps the most important practical application of the resurrection of Christ is that of baptism. If Christ did not resurrect from the dead then how can we resurrect from our former sins and be totally cleansed of them? We must die to our sins just like Christ died on the cross.(1 Peter 2:24). This verse also tells us that by his wounds we have been healed. We have been healed from our sins when we rise up out of the waters of baptism. Just like Jesus conquered death, we have conquered our past sins! We must then continue to live as we have been commanded to! We
I was hoping someone would bring this up! Baptism is an imitation of the death, burial, and RESURRECTION. This is summarized in Romans 6:4-7: “Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be [b]in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be [d]done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin.”
I also love Colossians 3:1-2: “Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.” When we are raised with Christ our minds must be change to be focused on Him.
Thank you for sharing that verse in Romans Rebekah!
death burial and ressurrection is a shadow of our baptism. Our “death” is when the old man dies to sin. Our “burial” is when we are lowered into the watery grave. And finally our “resurrection” is when the new man rises out of the grave.
Wonderfully Put!
Do you know how many studies are going to be in the ” In Him” series?
I currently have two more in mind, but we will see!
Cool!
AWESOME!
I am looking forward to them!
YAY!!!!
So sorry for the random word at the end of my comment. I was having some technical difficulties.( My Bible was on a button and I didn’t realize it haha.)
I was saying that we must continue to live as we have been commanded to. We must be careful not to fall back into our past sins! 2 Peter 2:20-21
No problem. I was wondering what that was for though! 🙂
In regard to the second question…
Sometimes I forget exactly how important Jesus’ resurrection is! Without it everything that we do for Christ would be in vain because He would still be lying in a grave!!! Without it we have no hope of a resurrection for ourselves!!! To think about what would happen is depressing because our entire lives would be pointless!!! Our lives would just end with the sting of death! And what we would be preaching (the gospel) would be false doctrine!!! We would still be lost in our sins!!! All those who we loved that have pasted away will have perished! This is why we must be sooo thankful for the resurrection of Jesus because it gives us HOPE! Which is why we should work harder on preparing for the day when we will be resurrected!
John 11:25 Acts 2:30-33 Acts 17:31-32 Acts 24:15 Romans 6:3-11 1 Corinthians 15:12-20
Same! I tend to focus on the death of Jesus, and the atonement we receive from His death (Romans 5:6-11), to the neglect of the importance of the resurrection. I’m thankful for 1 Corinthians 15, because it focuses closely on the benefits and the necessity of the resurrection. Thank you for noting what our lives would be like without the resurrection…that is certainly motivational.
YESSS!!! 1 Corinthians 15 is such a great passage about the resurrection!!
I so enjoyed the discussion tonight! If you have any questions, or any more comments, please feel free to email me or post them on here for later discussion. I’m glad we focused so much on John the Baptist, because I tend to overlook him. So thankful for the work he did to usher in our Messiah. Even more thankful for the work the Messiah did on the cross. So thankful. Love you girls!
Thank u !! I really enjoyed it too. luv u.
Love you Rebekah and ladies!
I’m so thankful for the work you do too Mrs. Rebekah!!!! Thank you so much for tonight! Great comments everybody! Love y’all! <3
Thank you Rebekah! I enjoyed tonight’s discussion very much also!