When people recognize a need, they look for a solution. Most of the people who went into the desert to hear John the Baptist were there because they had a need and they were looking to him to provide the solution. They had spiritual needs caused by discontentment, emptiness, and unrighteousness in their lives. Some were dissatisfied with their failure to live righteous lives. Some would have been dissatisfied and discontent with their spiritual condition. God created mankind with the desire for communion with him, and they did not have that. There lives were spiritually empty. They did not all experience the same understanding and awareness of their needs, but they did all realize that a prophet of God might provide the solution they were looking for. They looked to John the Baptist as a prophet.

To the crowds that came to hear him speak, John the Baptist spoke truth. It was hard hitting truth and it called for decisive decision. He told them that if they were to find that which they were seeking they needed to repent. Repenting was not saying they were sorry for sins, but rather turning away from sinful actions. He baptized them with water them as an outward sign of their inner commitment to righteousness. He did not claim that he was providing the final answer to their spiritual needs. Rather he told them he was providing them with the first step they must take to prepare themselves to see and recognize the Messiah who was coming. The Messiah would bring to fulfillment all that the Old Testament had foretold. The Messiah was going to make reconciliation with God not only a possibility but a reality. Multitudes out of the crowds took that first step and were baptized. They were preparing themselves to recognize Jesus. Many we were baptized by John went on to recognize Jesus and they accepted him as the promised Messiah. Jesus met their needs and baptized them with the Holy Spirit.

Salvation starts by recognizing our need.