Luke 3:18 Commentary and Bible Study

What we have recorded in the Gospels is only a small sample of John’s preaching. He exhorted the people, and this is an essential part of preaching. His preaching was designed to get them to change their thinking, their behaviour, their response to God. He urged them to be much more serious than they had been before. The prevailing theme of his ministry was to prepare the people for the coming of the Messiah, ‘lest’, says the Lord in the closing words of Malachi, ‘I come and smite the earth with a curse’ (Malachi 4:6), but he was very clear that he himself was not the Messiah. It was therefore to be expected that he was happy to lose disciples who became disciples of the Lord. At least two of the apostles (and perhaps more) were first disciples of John. They were eagerly looking for the Messiah, and for a time were devoted to John, but quickly became disciples of Christ once he was identified to them (John 1:35-42).