Pray Psalm 98.2, 3.
The LORD has made known His salvation;
His righteousness He has revealed in the sight of the nations.
He has remembered His mercy and His faithfulness to the house of Israel;
All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.

Sing Psalm 98.2, 3.
(Duke Street: Come, Let Us Sing unto the Lord)
Now is God’s saving mercy known; His glory to the world is shown. 
Faithful and kind is God our Lord; earth has the Name of Jesus heard.

Read and meditate on Luke 3.1-6.

Preparation
1. How did Luke pin the events of this chapter to a specific historical time?

2. How did he tie these events into the larger, real world of God’s Word?

Meditation
Here again Luke reminds us that the events he is recording took place in the real world – the world of men, nations, and times as well as the eternal, unchanging, and unfailing world of the Word of God. He instructs us always to remember that we live in two worlds at once – the world that we see with our eyes and the one we see by faith. These are the real world, from which and into which Jesus came among us. We must work to maintain a proper integration of these two realms into the one real world in which we, like John, are called to herald the Good News of Jesus.

John was in the wilderness when the Word of God came to him (v. 2). His response was immediate: “he went into all the region around the Jordan, preaching” (v. 3). In doing so, John was being moved by the Spirit of God, Who gave ancient prophecies concerning him to the prophet Isaiah (vv. 4-6). John was the voice crying in the wilderness to announce to his world, as the shepherds had done some thirty years before, that “the salvation of God” has come to the world (v. 6).

The effects of this would be levelling. We note that, in the Hebrew, Isaiah used the divine name, LORD, as the Bringer of salvation; here, Luke applies that Name to Jesus. All would be equal in sin before the LORD. The lowly and the high, the crooked and the straight, the rough and the smooth would all stand guilty before the LORD, to see Him and the salvation He brings to the world (vv. 5, 6). John would be the forerunner, not only of the LORD but of all who, like John, receive the Word and are sent to proclaim the LORD’s salvation to the people in their Personal Mission Field.

Working your Personal Mission Field, you might feel like a voice crying in the wilderness. And so you are! Do not be deterred and do not despair. Cry on, friends, so that “all flesh shall see the salvation of God.”

Treasures Old and New: Matthew 13.52; Psalm 119.162.
Just look at that list of people who oversaw the government and the church when John was the forerunner of Jesus’ ministry! Many of the names are recognizable because we know them as conspirators and killers of both the preparer and the One for Whom he was preparing the way (Lk. 3.1, 2). But those enemies of the Good News could not stop it.

The Fellowship of Ailbe now reaches into 181 countries, so those reading this will have different names to fill in the blanks of their present government and church leaders. But the impact and the truth of Jesus remains the same—for He and His message are “the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Heb.13.8). Each of us are called into our own Personal Mission Field to prepare the way for Jesus to bring life and change into many minds, hearts, and souls abiding therein. And again, nothing can stop this Good News of redemption and life.

Jesus said, “He who believes in Me, believes not in Me but in Him who sent Me. And he who sees Me sees Him who sent Me. I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness” (Jn. 12.44-46). God took us out of darkness through His great demonstration of love for us by the death of His dear Son (Rom. 5.8), and then we were reconciled to Him and saved by Jesus’ life (Rom. 5.10).

And nothing can stop the movement of His Spirit into the lives of His chosen people (1 Pet. 2.9, 10).

“What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” (Rom. 8.31, 32) “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?” (Rom. 8.35) “Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us” (Rom. 8.37).

The question asked many years ago by the psalmist is still relevant today: “Why do the nations rage, and the people plot a vain thing?” (Ps. 2.1)

He has chosen His King, and His King will reign forever (Lk. 1.33).

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end.
Amen. Amen.
(Gloria Patri, 2^nd century)

For reflection
1. What was John the Baptist appointed to do?

2. In what ways is his calling like your own calling to be a witness for Jesus (Acts 1.8)?

3. Could anything stop John from fulfilling His calling? Should anything stop you? Explain.

… the Word came that the desolate earth would bring forth fruit for us. The Word came, and the voice followed, for the Word first works within before the voice follows. Hence David too says, “I believed, and then I spoke.” Ambrose of Milan (333-397),Exposition of the Gospel of Luke 2.67

Pray Psalm 98.4-9.
Rejoice in the Lord and in His salvation! Ask Him to use you today to share the Good News of Jesus with someone in your Personal Mission Field. Know that all creation rejoices when we proclaim the Gospel.

Sing Psalm 98.2, 3.
(Duke Street: Come, Let Us Sing unto the Lord)
Raise to the Lord your loudest voice! Break forth and sing! Rejoice! Rejoice!
Praise, praise to You our God and King, with all our hearts and strength we bring!

Now let the whole creation ‘round burst into song with joyous sound!
Jesus will come to judge the earth; let all proclaim His matchless worth!

T. M. and Susie Moore

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Except as indicated, all Scriptures are taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. For sources of all quotations, see the weekly PDF of this study. All psalms for singing are from The Ailbe Psalter (Williston: Waxed Tablet Publications, 2006), available by clicking here.