Luke 3:1-14 for Sunday School

Once upon a time, many many years ago, the world was ruled by a very powerful man named Tiberius. His kingdom stretched all the way from Spain and Portugal in the west, England in the north, Egypt in the south and a little place called Palestine in the east. Judea was in Palestine and Tiberius put a man named Pontius Pilate in charge there. Galilee, a region of Judea, was governed by Herod.

As far as the rest of the world was concerned, Judea had never really been an important place. And Galilee was even less so. It was mostly just a place you had to pass through on your way to big important places like Babylon or Egypt.

But this is where the Jews lived. And the Jews believed with all their hearts that God had put them in that place for a reason. They believed firmly that God had chosen them out of all the powerful nations in the world to be His family. And you know what? They were right. God had selected them and made them special. As a result, several of the Jews worked very hard to make sure they were doing exactly what God wanted them to do.

And they did this, in part, because they believed that if they did all that God asked them to do, God would send them a new king that would make the Jews a great nation again. This king, many thought, would throw out Herod's men and Pilate's men and Tiberius' men. He would set up a new kingdom so that all the world would see just how great and powerful the Jews' God was.

That is the reason why, in this distant corner of the world, a lot of the Jews started taking trips into the desert to see John. Now John was kind of a funny man. He lived in the desert. He wore a shirt made from camel's hair and a big leather belt. John had never had a hair cut and he never trimmed his beard; they just kept growing and growing. And John ate the most peculiar food: locusts and honey! That's right! Honey covered grasshoppers! Still, people went to see him because of what he was saying and doing.

John set up camp along the Jordan River and people came to him and he would dunk them under the water. "Repent of your sinful lives!" He told them. "Turn around and listen to what God is saying!"

John was sounding an awful lot like something they had read in their Bibles. He sounded like someone that a prophet named Isaiah had written about: "A voice of one crying out in the wilderness, 'Prepare the way of the Lord; make straight paths for Him. Lift up every valley; flatten out the mountains and hills! Straighten out crooked roads; and smooth out the rough paths! And then comes God's salvation." You see, people were excited about John because they knew that if John was the one Isaiah talked about, then the king they hoped for would come along real soon.

But John knew that a lot of them were still really sinful people who didn't really trust God at all. "You snakes!" he called them. "Why do you come out here to see me? Start living like you actually trust God. And don't think that just because you're descendants of Abraham that God will save you. It's not your parents or grandparents that matter. It's how YOU live that makes you a part of God's family!"

The people were astonished and they knew they should change their lives. "What should we do?" they asked John.

"Share with others who don't have what you have," he answered. "Don't lie to people or cheat people. Don't take advantage of other people. That's what you need to do to get ready for God's king. It's bad news for those who don't."