Festival of St. Thomas, Apostle
Posted on December 21, 2023 by under
Scripture: St. John 1:24-34 (NKJV)
1:24 Now those who were sent were from the Pharisees. 25 And they asked him, saying, “Why then do you baptize if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?”
26 John answered them, saying, “I baptize with water, but there stands One among you whom you do not know. 27 It is He who, coming after me, is preferred before me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose.”
28 These things were done in Bethabara beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing.
29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! 30 This is He of whom I said, ‘After me comes a Man who is preferred before me, for He was before me.’ 31 I did not know Him; but that He should be revealed to Israel, therefore I came baptizing with water.”
32 And John bore witness, saying, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and He remained upon Him. 33 I did not know Him, but He who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘Upon whom you see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ 34 And I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God.”
Devotion
As we continue our look at the life of John the Baptist, today we focus on his most important confession and preaching: his work of pointing to Jesus as the Christ, the promised Messiah. The first task of this confession was to confess what John was not. He was not the Christ, not Elijah (though he did preach in the spirit of Elijah, as Gabriel had said to his father before he was born), and not “the Prophet,” the one that Moses prophesied would arise (which is another name for the Christ).
As John says, he was the “voice of one crying in the wilderness; ‘Make straight the way of the Lord’” (John 1:23). And the Lord has come, not to grant us worldly peace and prosperity, but to suffer and die for our sins. Thus, He is the true Lamb of God, who is both true man and true God at the same time, as Scriptures have plainly foretold.
It was to bear witness to this vital truth that John the Baptist was called, and why John was baptizing. This Advent season we also do well to fix our eyes on the true Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, who lived a perfect life and died a perfect death to pay the debt we owe to God for all of our sins.
Collect: Grant, O Lord, unto Thy people a steadfastness in faith, that we might not be be shaken by the doubts of the flesh, but ever be established in an unshakable hope in Christ Jesus, who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Collect for Gaudete
Lord, we beseech Thee, give ear to our prayers, and lighten the darkness of our hearts, by Thy gracious visitation; Who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Collect for the Season of Advent
Stir up, we beseech Thee, Thy power, O Lord, and come, that by Thy protection we may be rescued from the threatening perils of our sins, and saved by Thy mighty deliverance; who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
