Luke 3:15-17

John the Baptist Prepares the Way

¹⁵ As the people were in expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, _o whether he might be _p the Christ, ¹⁶ _q John answered them all, saying, "I baptize you with water, but _r he who is mightier than I is coming, _s the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you _t with the Holy Spirit and with _u fire. ¹⁷ His _v winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to _w gather the wheat into his barn, _x but the chaff he will burn with _y unquenchable fire."

1. Cross References
   John 1:19 - 20
   And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, "Who are you?
   
2. Cross References
   Matthew 1:17
   So all the generations from Abraham to David were fourteen generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ fourteen generations.
   
3. Cross References
   John 1:26
   John answered them, "I baptize with water, but among you stands one you do not know.
   Acts 1:5
   For John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.
   
4. Cross References
   John 1:15
   ( John bore witness about him, and cried out, "This was he of whom I said, 'He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.'")
   John 1:27
   Even he who comes after me, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.
   John 3:30 - 31
   He must increase, but I must decrease.
   Acts 13:25
   And as John was finishing his course, he said, 'What do you suppose that I am? I am not he. No, but behold, after me one is coming, the sandals of whose feet I am not worthy to untie.
   
5. Cross References
   Isaiah 5:27
   None is weary, none stumbles, none slumbers or sleeps, not a waistband is loose, not a sandal strap broken.
   
6. Cross References
   John 1:33
   I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, 'He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.
   Acts 11:16
   And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he said, 'John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.
   
7. Cross References
   Malachi 3:2 - 3
   But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner's fire and like fullers' soap.
   Acts 2:3
   And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them.
   
8. Cross References
   Isaiah 30:24
   And the oxen and the donkeys that work the ground will eat seasoned fodder, which has been winnowed with shovel and fork.
   
9. Cross References
   Matthew 13:30
   Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.'
   
10. Cross References
    Malachi 4:1
    For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch.
    
11. Cross References
    Mark 9:43
    And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire.
    Mark 9:48
    'where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.'