The good message about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God, began when John, the Baptizer, as was prophesied long ago, announced the coming of Jesus.

12 1-2◄This is/I want to tell you► the good message about Jesus Christ, the Son of God (OR, the man who was also God). What I want to tell you begins just like the prophet Isaiah said it would begin, when he wrote these words that God said to Jesus:

Listen! I am sending my messenger ahead of you. He will prepare people for your coming. 3 He will call out to people who pass by where he is in the desolate area, “As people improve and straighten out pathways before an important official arrives [MET], make yourselves ready [DOU] in order that you will be prepared when the Lord comes.”

4 The messenger that Isaiah predicted was John. People called him ‘The Baptizer’. In the desolate area near the Jordan River he kept telling people, “If you want God to forgive you for having sinned, you must turn away from your sinful behavior before you ask me to baptize you.” 5 A great number [HYP] of people who lived in Jerusalem city and elsewhere in the Judea district were going out to where John was. There, after hearing John’s message, they responded by confessing the sinful things that they had done. Then they were being baptized by John {John was baptizing them} in the Jordan River. 6 John wore rough clothes made of camel’s hair. And as the prophet Elijah had done, he wore a leather belt around his waist; and what he ate was only grasshoppers and honey that he found in that desolate area. 7 He was preaching, “Very shortly a man will come who is very great. I am nothing compared to him. Because he is so superior to me, I am not even worthy to serve him like a slave by stooping down and untying his sandals. 8 I used only water when I baptized you because you said that you wanted to change your lives, but he will put his Holy Spirit within you to truly change your lives.”