• His role is to prepare the Lord’s way: Luke’s John is a precursor for Jesus and a model for discipleship. He not only prepares the crowds for the Coming One, who will baptize with the Spirit, but begins to introduce them to the themes of Jesus’ ministry. • He begins the process of revealing God’s salvation: in Acts, the ministry of John is consistently set as the beginning of the gospel (Acts 1:21–22; 10:36–37; 13:23–25), and Jesus will say that from John forward, the gospel has been proclaimed
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