By Mr. Tyler Pettigrew, Pastoral Assistant
Sunday, December 26, 2010 · First Sunday after Christmas
Sermon Series: Are We Prepared? The Old Testament in the Gospel of Mark
Sermon Text: Matthew 3:1-10
Sermon Theme
Our main scripture reading today is about John the Baptist. It may seem odd to be reading about John the Baptist since we are still very much in the Christmas season. However, chronologically, in the gospel of Matthew, the scripture we will read comes right after Matthew’s description of the child Jesus, and right before the baptism of Jesus. Even though Jesus was baptized as an adult, his experience of baptism was something like a second birth, when the Holy Spirit descended upon him. So in a way, it seems that in the gospel of Matthew, the introduction of John the Baptist appears between two “birth” stories about Jesus: one, Jesus’ physical birth, and two, a sort of spiritual birth. If we look closely at what John the Baptist has to say, I think we will discover something interesting about being born and our birthrights.
