John the Baptist prepares a way for Jesus

3 While Jesus still lived in Nazareth, a man called John the Baptist was speaking a message from God. He was doing this in the wilderness in Judea.^{[a] 2} He told people, ‘You have done many wrong things. You must turn away from them and change how you live. Do this now, because the kingdom of heaven has come very near.’

³ God's prophet Isaiah spoke about this man John long ago. He said:

⁴ John wore clothes made from the hair of a camel. He also wore a belt made from leather. His usual food was locusts and honey from the wilderness.^[c]

⁵ Many people went to listen to John. They lived in Jerusalem and all over the country called Judea and many other places near the Jordan River. ⁶ The people told God about all the wrong things that they had done. Then John baptized them in the Jordan River.^[d]

⁷ Many Pharisees and Sadducees came to John.^[e] They wanted John to baptize them. He said to them, ‘You are like dangerous snakes. God is angry. You are trying to run away from him. But he will soon punish people like you. ⁸ You have to show that you are sorry. Change how you live. Stop doing things that God does not like. ⁹ Do not say to yourselves, “We are in the family of Abraham. God will surely not punish us.” Listen! God can take these stones and make children for Abraham out of them! ¹⁰ You are like trees that have bad fruit. God has an axe ready to use. He will cut down every tree that does not make good fruit. He will throw those trees into the fire.

¹¹ I baptize you with water. This shows that you want to change the way that you live. But another person will come soon.^[f] He is greater than I am. I am not good enough even to carry his shoes for him. This other person will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. ¹² He is like a farmer that brings the wheat home from his field. He uses a special tool to throw the wheat up in the air. He does this to make the wheat seeds separate from what remains. Then he cleans his yard. He carefully stores all the seeds to keep them safe. But he burns everything else in a great fire that nobody can put out.’

John baptizes Jesus

¹³ Then Jesus went from Galilee to the Jordan River. He wanted John to baptize him. ¹⁴ But John tried to stop him. He said to Jesus, ‘I should ask you to baptize me. You should not ask me to baptize you.’

¹⁵ Jesus replied, ‘This time, do what I ask you to do. We must do everything correctly, as God wants it.’ So John did what Jesus asked him to do.

¹⁶ When John baptized him, Jesus came up out of the water. At that moment, the skies opened. Jesus saw God's Spirit coming down. He came down like a dove and he stayed on Jesus. ¹⁷ Then a voice spoke from heaven, which said, ‘This man is my Son and I love him. He makes me very happy.’