About 20 years ago on Remembrance Day I was speaking at a small Baptist Church in south Essex. As part of the prayers of intercession, we reflected on the many wars and humanitarian crises which were happening around the world. At the end of each section of the prayers I used this phrase.
‘If ever the world needed Jesus, it needs Him now.’
As I write, a week has passed since a brutal Hamas attack which originated from northern Gaza, resulted in thousands of Israeli dead. Women. Children. Entire families. Killed in their own homes. This attack was a massacre. This attack was brutal and inexcusable. The attack grows from a shameful history of deprivation and suppression of the Palestinian people.
Tonight, 2 million Palestinian people are living under siege. They are being denied access to the basic needs of food, water and medicine. Israel is bombing residential areas of Gaza, including places where displaced refugees are seeking refuge. They are being shelled and killed in their own homes by armaments fired by the Israeli Defence Force. Civilians are being maimed and killed in their thousands. They are victims of a massacre. Women. Children. Entire families. There is no safe place in Gaza. The people of Gaza have nowhere to hide. They have nowhere to go.
As I write, the world is holding its breath in horror.
As I write, the world is watching.
‘If ever the world needed the love, the healing, the peace and the grace of Jesus Christ, it needs it now.’
Today, more than ever, keep praying.
Jesus had been fasting for days. The temptation to turn stones into bread must have been enormous. There are millions of people in the world right now who would do it if they could. The difference with Jesus is that the one who turned water into wine clearly could if he chose, actually turn pebbles into bread rolls. The one who was given all authority in heaven and earth, could have subjugated all the nations and assumed power over them. The Son of God could summons the angels in time of need. So the point is that these are temptations which were within His reach. He could have done these things.
John’s baptism was for repentance and the forgiveness of sin. Why, then, did Jesus, the one who was without sin, need to be baptised? 
In this first quarter of the 21st Century, we have a new concept of what it means to be an ‘influencer’. An influencer is someone who is perceived as having authority or knowledge on a specific topic and who attracts the interest of large numbers of people. Today, we have ‘cultural influencers’, some of whom can claim millions of followers. Their endorsement of a product or a lifestyle choice can inspire a large tranche of their admirers to change their behaviour. For better or worse, social media influencers can be a powerful force in contemporary culture.
Secondly, the purpose of his message. Social media influencers are, for the most part, about self promotion. We can optimise our websites, manipulate meta data and tags, influence algorithms, and play a host of tricks to encourage people to follow us. There are exceptions, but most influencers are generally self interested. We live in a celebrity culture, where success is measured in ‘clicks’, ‘likes’, ‘follows’, and generated advertising income. Whatever the message of John was, it was not about self, but about someone else. The Gospel writers present him as a signpost linking the coming of Christ to the prophets of old. They also describe a signpost pointing towards the future. His message was to herald the arrival of one who was to follow him. One whose sandals John was not even fit to untie. The message was not about John. It was about Jesus.
It is in verse 4 that the drama starts. My French Bible (i) begins this verse with the shortest of sentences. ‘Jean parait.’ The message is clear. After 400 years of prophetic silence, ‘John appeared’. His name is rooted in the Hebrew name of Yehochanan, which means ‘the grace or mercy of Jehovah’ (ii). ‘A most proper and significant name for the forerunner of the God of All Grace.’ (iii)
Whilst the identity of Malachi, the man, is subject to some debate, it is accepted in the Christian, and more importantly the Jewish tradition, that his prophecies were the last recorded in the Hebrew Bible.