What is the Kingdom of God about? Luke seems to think Jesus was breaking it down very simply for us: love God, love people, be with the King Jesus. In chapter 11, Jesus teaches us how to pray for the way of the kingdom, and at the heart of the prayer is a reshaping of our own hearts toward loving God, loving people, and being with the King.
Continuing our tour through Luke, we see Jesus and John are both grown now and John is preaching for people to turn away from trusting themselves or this world, and to turn toward trusting God. Get ready for the kingdom of God to come and reign over all of creation. He calls for people to come and cleanse themselves in the river as a sign of their cleansing from rebellion against God, and among the crowd that comes is Jesus. Why would Jesus get baptized? Why would the Savior need cleansing? Why would the King need to prepare for the kingdom?
This is the week! We’ve spent all month pointing toward the coming King Jesus, and this week we celebrate that he did indeed come. The God of the universe, the Creator of all things, the King of everything, has come into this world. He has come to you and I. He has come to rescue. It's our prayer that you would see the beautiful rescue of Christmas this week - and that that is what would shine through all the excitement of presents and the hurriedness of our culture.
