Mon Sep 21

Listen up, little ones

Especially for the littles in your household.

Listen for the words voice, cry, crying.

Reading

Isaiah 40:1-11—Prepare the Way of the Lord

Optional Reading

Luke 3:1-38

Keys for kids

Also for the littles. Young households might choose, after Keys for Kids, to go directly to praise and prayer.

A voice is crying out in the wilderness.
The voice is calling people to be prepared for the Lord.
John the Baptist is that voice preparing people for Jesus.

Questions

(Some read the ?s before the notes/ ask them after.)

Who is the voice crying in the wilderness?
What is the voice crying out?
How can we be sure of our salvation?

Catechism

(1 Q&A each week related to the preaching text)

WSC #94

What is baptism?

Baptism is a sacrament, wherein the washing with water in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, doth signify and seal our ingrafting into Christ, and partaking of the benefits of the covenant of grace, and our engagement to be the Lord’s.

(Matthew 28:19; Romans 6:4; Galatians 3:27)

Notes

(See Saturday for authors.)

A voice is crying in the wilderness. What voice? And what is it crying? Though not identified by Isaiah directly, this voice must have been first faithful prophets with the exiles in Babylon. They called out to King Cyrus to release God’s people and prepare a way for them to return to their land. And he did (Isaiah 45:1-13, Ezra 1:1-4).

Luke, and the other New Testament gospel writers, though, also identified this voice as that of John the Baptist. He would announce the Lord coming to lead His people to full salvation.

And what did the voice cry? Make a highway for God! Smooth out the terrain! This will reveal God’s glory! And John the evangelist would write, we beheld His glory (John 1:14)!

Do we consider enough the glory of God revealed in Jesus for the salvation of His people? God in the flesh walking beside sinful men and women; living a perfect life; dying a horrible death – not for His own failures, but for the sins of all whom the Father had given Him—and returning to His Father to prepare a (high)way for us to be with Him. And we can count on it. God has spoken. We are as unreliable as grass that dries up, but His word is eternally true.

Swedish Method questions

See the Sunday notes for meaning of the symbols.

Praise

Psalm 66a, 119v

Prayer

Give glory to God for His great salvation.
Pray for a specific application from yesterday’s sermons.
Pray for a member of our church, for your family, and for a non-Christian friend/family member.