Luke 3 "Clearing the Way"

1. "Repent!"

a. Crazy fanatics!
How do we react when we see people on street corners holding up placards saying "Repent, the end is near!" "Hell is coming!

Do we think to ourselves, "Crazy fanatics!"?

We usually think their message is utter rubbish. Many people on the street usually just walk past them.

But isn't their message the same one we Christians believe in as well? Yet, it is a very confrontational message so we usually not like to play it up.

b. Meaning?
What does it really mean to repent? Is it just about joining a religious club? Is it about becoming a good person, turning over a new leaf, going from bad morals to good morals?

How is it related to the forgiveness of sins? How is it related to Jesus? Why should we repent?

John in Luke 3, now grown up from the unborn John we read about in previous chapters, is exactly like one of these crazy religious freaks.

2. Clearing the Way

a. Desert voice
v7 - He is a hell-fire kind of preacher as well! As people come to hear him, he lashes out at people, calling them 'snakes'!

The difference between him and modern day street corner preachers is that John is not at a busy intersection in the city, he is way out in the wilderness (1:80, 3:2-3)! People don't shun him - they flock to hear him in the desert! Why?

Israel was exiled to Babylon around 597 BC because they were disobedient to God. Isaiah 40 was written during the time of exile. There is a promise that Israel would return to the Promised Land. In 538 BC, they did finally return to the land! Yet, as we saw in previous chapters, they still had not truly 'returned'. There was no lasting 'shalom' or peace. They were still in Babylon theologically and spiritually. They were still under the Roman Empire. They were still a captive nation under foreign rule. Isaiah 40 was the last word God gave the Israelites. Since then, there has been silence from God. Then suddenly around 30 years ago (Luke 1-2), shepherds, Zechariah, Simeon and Anna heard God's word and proclaimed it to others! Silence ensued again, till now when John the Baptist begins to bring forth God's word again. It is no wonder everyone flocks to hear what he has to say.

b. Baptism of repentance
John preaches a baptism of repentance. He prepares the people spiritually, not physically. It is not a positive message (v7).

i. More than heritage
He is saying that it takes more than Jewish heritage to be right with God (v8). Heritage doesn't count for anything.

ii. Bear good fruit
They are to live lives that show they have repented. John gives concrete examples:
v11 - God's people are to look after each other
v12 - Tax collectors who tended to extort were to stop doing so
v14 - Soldiers in positions of authority and power who tended to abuse their power were to stop doing so

iii. Wrath to come
John preaches about God's wrath that is coming soon as well. This may be surprising for many who think God is love. But the God of the Bible is a God of wrath and anger as well. Yet, His anger is righteous. God's standard is perfect. He rightly condemns and punishes us. His wrath is picture here in Luke 3 in terms of fire. The Bible pictures fire as painful, conscious suffering, not annihilation. John says it is coming very soon -  the axe is already laid to the root of the trees (v9)!

At this point we should note that while street corner preachers are saying the truth, what they do is not very wise since there is no relationship with he audience, and people don't understand what is going on. The Jewish context in which John begins his preaching is different and cannot be translated for modern day application - e.g. the Jewish people would flock to him.

c. Another baptism
v15 - John says he is not the Christ - he is like the bridesmaid at a wedding - the forerunner before the bride. Once the Christ appears the spotlight will be on him and John will fade into the background. The Christ will baptise them with the Holy Spirit and with fire. It is the Old Testament image of judgment. The Christ will bring in judgment day. It is the real baptism.

d. Imprisoned
John is a really brave preacher. He is brave enough to criticise the political leader of the day, Herod, for taking his brother's wife Herodias (presumably while his brother was still married to her), and for the evil things he had done (v19), but this gets him thrown into prison. God's forerunner is now imprisoned.

3. The Son
So with the forerunner being locked up, we now turn our attention to the arrival of the Christ, and we don't have to wait long! We see him arrive in v21. What's the first thing he does?

Nothing much. Instead, things are done to Him.

a. Holy Spirit @ baptism
v22 - The Holy Spirit descends on Jesus in bodily form, like a dove. It would likely have looked like a dove descending on Jesus. But the dove did not stay there - we don't see Jesus with a dove on his shoulder the rest of his life. Some people have speculated the dove could have something to do with Noah's ark, but the link is not strong and perhaps it is best not to speculate on these things.

What we can be sure is that the Holy Spirit descends on Jesus. Together with Luke 1:35, 1:41, 1:45, 1:67, 2:26, it is clear Jesus is the Son of the Most High.

b. "My beloved son"
The next thing we hear is a very important sentence. "You are my beloved Son, with you I am well pleased." It is really 2 quotes from the Old Testament.

The 1st comes from Psalm 2:

1  Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?
2  The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against his Anointed, saying,
3  "Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us."
4  He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision.
5  Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying,
6  "As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill."
7  I will tell of the decree: The LORD said to me, "You are my Son; today I have begotten you.
8  Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession.
9  You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel."
10  Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth.
11  Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling.
12  Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.
When the New Testament quotes the Old Testament, the whole passage is brought to view. In Psalm 2, we read of the peoples of the earth trying to go against God. But God installs His Son as King over all the peoples of the earth and has full authority over them. We must make sure we kiss the Son - we must make sure we are on His side, not against Him.

c. "I am well pleased"
The 2nd quote is from Isaiah 42:1. "Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations."

God will put His Spirit on Jesus and bring justice to the nations. How will He as God's servant serve?

1  Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
2  For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.
3  He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
4  Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.
5  But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed.
6  All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned--every one--to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Instead of rightfully punishing us, God will lay our punishment on Jesus instead. That is the way Jesus will serve.

Yet, these 2 pictures of Jesus are very different! How do we put the 2 things together? How does the King die and still rule? Is Luke 3 the first time these 2 pictures of God's servant are put together?

No. In Psalm 2, we see that the way to kingship sees much opposition from man. Before and after Isaiah 53, we see the victory of the Servant.

13  Behold, my servant shall act wisely; he shall be high and lifted up, and shall be exalted.
14  As many were astonished at you-- his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the children of mankind--
15  so shall he sprinkle many nations; kings shall shut their mouths because of him; for that which has not been told them they see, and that which they have not heard they understand. (Isaiah 52)

The Christ must suffer first, before He is exalted.

Other than Jesus, only John was there - the pronouncement was for Jesus. He was encouraged and confirmed by God the Father. This is how the Holy Spirit empowers Jesus - through His Word!

d. Son of Adam...

v23 (as was supposed) shows the extraordinary circumstances surrounding Jesus' birth. Legally, Jesus' father was Joseph though we know he was in fact born of a virgin. Tracing his geneology to Adam shows us that Jesus is representing all of humanity, not just Israel. Who better to rule the whole world than the Son of God! There is no room for relativism: everyone, regardless of their culture, language and tribe, has to be on Jesus' side to escape judgment.

4. Genuine repentance
Therefore, genuine repentance involves asking: what have we done with God's Son? How have we treated Him?

a. Know the times
We must not just have an intellectual kind of 'knowing' that Jesus is Ruler. Repentance involves living out what we know. It is a change of mind and will which shows forth in real action. Especially when we know that the time of judgment is near!

Jesus does not come to bring about a political rescue, a revolution. The Jewish tax collectors were collecting tax money for the Romans, their foreign rulers. In repenting, the tax collectors were told by John not to collect more than they were to collect - they were not told to stop collecting money altogether.

The way God will save is by bringing about judgment. We are closer to the final judgment than the crowds then. Jesus has already died, risen, and poured out His Holy Spirit. But the fire has not come yet. In the Old Testament, the Jews thought that the Holy Spirit and fire (judgment) would come together, but we now know there is a time gap between the pouring out of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2) and the time of judgment.

We can be sure judgment will come because God's Spirit has already been poured out. The judgment is a personal judgment. It is conscious suffering, not annihilation. Anyone who's not on God's side will suffer His judgment.

b. Know the Saviour King
But there is a way to be on God's side - Jesus has come to take the penalty of sin. Repentance is not just about moving from bad morals to good morals. It is a change from self-governance to Jesus' governance, trusting that Jesus' death has taken away our penalty of sin, and trusting Jesus that we will be saved from God's righteous judgment at the end. Being a Christian is about letting Jesus drive our life!

c. Know real baptism
Baptism is the outward sign of the inward reality that leads to real fruit. We can easily put on an outward show, going through the motions of being baptised and being at church week after week, but still not have an inward reality. Those of us who have been brought up in Christian families must know that our heritage does not save us! Just because we are from a Christian family does not guarantee that we are Christian. Those of us who have become Christian from non-Christian families should get baptised - it shows that we are serious about following Jesus!