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John preaches and baptizes

John, the son of a priest named Zechariah, lived in the desert. The Lord prepared him for a special service - to tell the world that the Messiah, the Christ, was soon to come, and to call the people to repentance. Hundreds of years before John was born, the prophets had written about how he would come to prepare the people for the arrival of the Messiah: "I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way" - "a voice of one calling in the desert, 'Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.' "

John's clothes were made of camel's hair and he had a leather belt around his waist. He lived on locusts and wild honey. When God revealed his will to him, John started preaching. He walked beside the river Jordan and told people to repent, and to be baptized as a sign of their repentance. He preached that through the act of baptism their sins would be forgiven. The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the river Jordan .

The people asked John, "What should we do then?" John answered, "The man with two tunics should share with him who has none, and the one who has food should do the same." Tax collectors also came to be baptized. "Teacher," they asked, "what should we do?" "Don't collect any more than you are required to," he told them. Then some soldiers asked him, "And what should we do?" He replied, "Don't extort money and don't accuse people falsely-be content with your pay", Mark 1:1-8; Luke 3:2-18.