Advent 3: Wrong put right

1. In your own words, describe John the Baptist.

Listen again to Luke 3.7-18.

2. Prophets often speak from the edges and margins of society. Who do you think are the prophetic voices for our generation?

3. What are the challenging voices we are hearing today? Are they from God?

4. Share a time when you have been challenged and changed your thinking and or behaviour.

5. There are a multitude of metaphors for salvation from sin in the New Testament, while not an exhaustive list Alan notes they include:

freedom from slavery to liberty; family from orphan to adoption; development from infancy to maturity; health from sickness to healing; belonging from alien to citizen; economic from debt to abundance; purity from dirty to clean; horticultural from barren to fruitful; legal from judgement to forgiveness; spatial from lost to found; moral from evil to good. There are many more besides. Which of these metaphors can you see in the ministry of John the Baptist.

Which are most helpful in our understanding of sin and salvation today?

6. John points us back to Jesus as the goodnews. How is the judgement Jesus brings to the earth goodnews?

7. Pray for Jesus to come again with the power of the Holy Spirit in your life, being open to the challenge and change he brings.