Reading the Bible Chronologically in 2022
This year, instead of reading from Genesis to Revelation, we will read the Bible as the story flows, as it happened and was written. There are several plans out there and I have worked to combine them into a plan that lets the Bible tell its own story "as it happened." Remember, the Bible is inspired, but not in the order the books appear in our Bibles. The Old Testament is approximately 3/4 of the Bible, but I have divided it so that we will spend half the year in the OT, and half the year in the NT.
Bible Readings: Matthew 3:1-17, Mark 1:1-11, Luke 3:1-22, John 1:15-28
Background:
You've heard it a million times - it's not about me, it's about Jesus! In today's readings, we meet a man who lived it. John the Baptist, the son of Zechariah and Elizabeth, became a phenomenon when he began to preach in the wilderness near the Jordan. He lowered the boom on the proud Jewish leaders (those who later hated and hunted Jesus) and he called everyone to repentance, baptizing them to demonstrate that repentance and their desire for their sins to be washed away.
Few stories appear in all four gospels, but the early ministry of John the Baptist is one. He drew a great following with people hanging on his every word. In fact, many began to whisper that he must be the Christ, the Messiah, the one sent from God to rescue Israel. But in Luke 3:16, he made it clear that he was just preparing the way for someone greater.
It is no shame to serve one greater than yourself!
Few stories appear in all four gospels, but the early ministry of John the Baptist is one. He drew a great following with people hanging on his every word. In fact, many began to whisper that he must be the Christ, the Messiah, the one sent from God to rescue Israel. But in Luke 3:16, he made it clear that he was just preparing the way for someone greater.
I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.Later, in John 3:30, he will utter these unbelievable words. "I must decrease." Jesus and his ministry must grow while I must fade into the background (and eventually be martyred, though there's no evidence he knew that). John's will, his ego, and his ambition; were subsumed completely into the purposes of God. He knew his place. He served God and prepared the way for the one who would come later, the Messiah himself.
It is no shame to serve one greater than yourself!
Daily Devotional: It's Not About Me!
Our world has fallen prey to the Andy Warhol concept that everyone will have his "15 minutes of fame" and many people live for that - to "go viral," to achieve fame even if it is for something shameful or disgusting. Fame is now our measure of significance.
But John the Baptist took that idea and slapped it upside the head...hard. He became famous but he never sought it. He never did a single thing to make himself famous and he never served fame - he served God.
He was a humble man, dressing simply and living in the wilderness. He preached a hard message, not one that people wanted to hear. The key to a false prophet's message was always this - he told people what they wanted to hear. "You are great just the way you are - don't ever change." "God will never judge sin because he loves us too much." But John proclaimed truth, judgment, and reality without any concern for the status of the people he was preaching to or how he might offend. Matthew 3:7 tells us how he called the self-important Pharisees and Sadducees a "brood of vipers" (language Jesus would later pick up); not exactly a way to win friends and influence people. He confronted average people and tax collectors and soldiers (who had real power) and didn't back down from any of them.
His life was not about him, it was about Jesus. That was no motto, no t-shirt, no Facebook status for John, it was his life. God's glory and the coming work of the Savior were all that mattered. He did not back down even when later it would cost him his head. He lived to make Jesus famous.
Are you a man or woman of God? Am I serving my own purposes or the purposes of God? Am I building my kingdom or the kingdom of God? Do I care more about whether people like me or whether they come to Christ?
I do not plan to wear camel's hair or eat locusts, but I need much more of the heart of John the Baptist in my soul.
But John the Baptist took that idea and slapped it upside the head...hard. He became famous but he never sought it. He never did a single thing to make himself famous and he never served fame - he served God.
He was a humble man, dressing simply and living in the wilderness. He preached a hard message, not one that people wanted to hear. The key to a false prophet's message was always this - he told people what they wanted to hear. "You are great just the way you are - don't ever change." "God will never judge sin because he loves us too much." But John proclaimed truth, judgment, and reality without any concern for the status of the people he was preaching to or how he might offend. Matthew 3:7 tells us how he called the self-important Pharisees and Sadducees a "brood of vipers" (language Jesus would later pick up); not exactly a way to win friends and influence people. He confronted average people and tax collectors and soldiers (who had real power) and didn't back down from any of them.
His life was not about him, it was about Jesus. That was no motto, no t-shirt, no Facebook status for John, it was his life. God's glory and the coming work of the Savior were all that mattered. He did not back down even when later it would cost him his head. He lived to make Jesus famous.
Are you a man or woman of God? Am I serving my own purposes or the purposes of God? Am I building my kingdom or the kingdom of God? Do I care more about whether people like me or whether they come to Christ?
I do not plan to wear camel's hair or eat locusts, but I need much more of the heart of John the Baptist in my soul.
Father, may I be faithful, bold, and devoted like your servant John. As he prepared the way of the Lord, may my life be about helping people come to know the Savior, that a way might be made for them to come to him.
Consider God's Word:
Think about your life, your priorities, and the way you spend your time. Is your passion that of John - making a way for the Lord? Or are you living selfishly, devoted to your own will and ways? A healthy time of prayer and self-reflection would be helpful today!
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