4th Sunday in Advent + John 1:19-28 + December 23, 2018
In the Name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Ghost. Amen. This is the testimony of John. A ll men should repent of their sins and receive baptism for the remission of sins. John was something new. He was less like his father Zacharias, a Levite and priest, offering sacrifices, and more of a prophet, prophesying that the Messiah who was to come was near. That’s why “ Jerusalem, all Judea, and all the region around the Jordan went out to him ” (Matt. 3:5). Many went out to confess their sins and be baptized for the forgiveness of their sins. But not everyone. The Temple folk from Jerusalem sent a delegation of Levites to the wilderness, to Bethabara where John was baptizing, to figure out who John was. “ Who are you? ” they ask, to which John responds bluntly, “ I am not the Christ. ” Apparently some were of the mind that John himself was the Messiah. You can see why. He appears in the desert, preaching repentance and baptizing as if he were sent by directly by God Him...