Luke 03(01–20)

Introduction

Over the Christmas period we spent our time studying the first two chapters of Luke’s gospel and Luke’s account of the events surrounding the Saviour’s birth. And I said that I might keep going in Luke’s gospel after Christmas; and indeed that’s what I’m going to do.

And so, we come today to the first twenty verses of chapter 3 which tell us about John and his ministry. So, John has now grown up. He’s become a man. And Luke tells us that the word of the Lord came to him when he was in the desert. And it turns out that John is doing exactly what the angel who appeared to his father said he would do: he’s preparing the people for the coming of the Lord. And he’s preparing them for the coming of the Lord by preaching to them about repentance and how they need to turn from their sin and turn to the Lord, who is coming to save and to punish: to save his people who believed and repented; and to punish those who did not believe and who did not repent. And, of course, that’s really what every preacher must do, because, though the Lord has already come, we know that he’s coming again one day. And since the Lord is coming again one day, then we all need to be ready for his return. And the way to get ready for his return is to turn from our sin and turn to the Lord, who is coming to save and to punish: to save his people who believed and repented; and to punish those who did not believe and who did not repent. And so, the message of every preacher today remains the same as the message of John the Baptist: it’s repent and believe in the coming Saviour for the forgiveness of your sins and for the hope of eternal life in the presence of God in the new heavens and earth.

The Exodus

Before turning to today’s passage, I want to spend a bit of time thinking about the exodus.

The exodus, of course, is what we read about in the book of Exodus in the Old Testament. God’s people were living in the land of Egypt, where they were slaved for the Egyptians, who put them to forced labour. And the Egyptians made their life bitter and they worked the Israelites ruthlessly. And so, the people groaned in their misery and their cry for help came up to the Lord, who sent them Moses to rescue them. Moses went to the Pharaoh and said to him, ‘This is what the Lord says: Let my people go.’ But Pharaoh refused to listen to Moses. And so, the Lord sent Ten Plagues on the Egyptians to persuade the Pharaoh to let his people go.

After the tenth and worst plague, Pharaoh had had enough and he let the people go. But once they’d gone, the Pharaoh changed his mind and his sent his army to capture the Israelites and bring them back. But the Lord opened up a way from his people through the Red Sea so that they escaped; and, when the Egyptians tried to go through the Red Sea, the Lord caused the water to go back into place so that they all drowned. And in Exodus 15 Moses and the people stood on the banks of the Red Sea and praised God who had saved them.

The Lord then led his people to Mount Sinai where he established his covenant with them, promising to be their God and to take care of them. In return they promised to obey his laws and commandments which he gave to them and which are summarised in the Ten Commandments. And then the Lord led them through the wilderness and into the Promised Land, that Eden-like land, flowing with milk and honey, where they had everything they needed and where they enjoyed the presence of God in their midst.

That’s the exodus and throughout the psalms and elsewhere in the Old Testament, the people remembered the time of the exodus and they praised God for it.

You’ll know from your Old Testament history, however, that the people were unfaithful to God. Though he was always faithful to them, and though he blessed them in many ways in the Promised Land, their hearts became hard and instead of worshipping the Lord, they worshipping false gods like Baal. And instead of walking in God’s ways and doing his will, they disobeyed him and broke his commandments. And though the Lord sent them prophets to warn them of what would happen if they continued to disregard him and to call on them to repent and to return to the Lord, they continued in their unbelief and sin. And so, eventually, the Lord did what he warned them about and he uprooted them from the Promised Land and sent them into exile. The people in the north went first and were taken away by the Assyrians. Then the people in the south were taken away by the Babylonians.

However, the Lord did not abandon his people completely. When they were in exile, he helped them. And he also announced through his prophets that he would bring them out of exile and back to the Promised Land. For instance, in Isaiah 40 — and this where we begin to see the connection with Luke 3, because Luke quotes from Isaiah 40 — the Lord declared the following:

Comfort, comfort my people,
says your God.
Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
and proclaim to her
that her hard service has been completed,
that her sin has been paid for,
that she has received from the Lord’s hand
double for all her sins.

When it says that Israel has received ‘double for their sins’, it doesn’t mean that she’s been punished twice for her sins, but that the punishment she received exactly matches the sins she has committed. Being sent away into exile was the appropriate punishment for all that Israel had done when they turned away from the Lord. But the Lord was no longer angry with his people. Instead of punishing Israel, he wanted to comfort Israel.

And then, in Isaiah 40, we have the words which Luke quotes in today’s passage. This is what Isaiah said:

A voice of one calling:
“In the desert prepare
the way for the Lord;
make straight in the wilderness
a highway for our God.
Every valley shall be raised up,
every mountain and hill made low;
the rough ground shall become level,
the rugged places a plain.

Isaiah announced that the time will come when a voice will call the people to get ready for the coming of the Lord. The image of making a highway in the desert and of raising up valleys and of lowering mountains and hills and making level the rough ground is taken from what actually happened in the ancient world. Whenever a king was travelling through a region, the people of the region were instructed to build a road for the king to travel on. Normally they didn’t bother with roads. But since the king was coming, with all his retinue, a level road was required. And so, Isaiah is saying that God the King is coming to his people and they had to prepare for his coming. However, the way to prepare for the coming of the Lord is not by building a road, but it’s by turning from their false gods and from their disobedience and to trust in the Lord who alone can save them from their captivity.

Later in Isaiah 40, Isaiah says:

You who bring good tidings
go up on a high mountain.
You who bring good tidings,
lift up your voice with a shout,
lift it up,
do not be afraid;
say to the towns of Judah,
‘Here is your God!’
See, the Sovereign Lord comes with power,
and his arm rules for him.
See, his reward is with him,
and his recompense accompanies him.
He tends his flock like a shepherd:
He gathers the lambs in his arms
and carries them close to his heart;
he gently leads those that have young.

So, God is coming to gather his people and bring them out of their captivity. He’s going to gather his people the way a shepherd gather his lambs and he’s going to lead his people back to the Promised Land. In other words, there’s going to be another exodus. Just as the Lord once led Israel out of Egypt and into the Promised Land, so he’s going to lead his people out of Babylon and into the Promised Land.

And, of course, God kept his word and he led the people out of Babylon in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah. However, here in Luke 3, Luke quotes from Isaiah 40 and applies the words of Isaiah to the coming of the Lord Jesus. And the point he’s making is that the coming of the Lord Jesus into the world is the beginning of a new and better exodus. It’s a better exodus than the original exodus from Egypt. And it’s a better exodus than the exodus from Babylon. It’s better than those two exoduses, because God has come in the person of his Son to lead his people out of our spiritual captivity; and he’s going to lead us all the way to the Promised Land of Eternal Life in the new heavens and earth.

Verses 1 to 6

And so, take a look at verses 1 and 2 of today’s passage. Luke begins by giving us a time-stamp to tell us when these things took place. This is not the first time he’s given us a time-stamp. Back in chapter 1, he told us that the angel’s announcement to Zechariah took place in the time of Herod king of Judea. That’s Herod the Great. And then, in chapter 2, he told us that the birth of the Lord Jesus took place when Augustus was the Roman Emperor. By the time we get to Luke 3, Augustus and Herod the Great have died. Augustus was succeeded as Emperor of Rome by Tiberius, whom Luke mentions in verse 1. Luke also mentions Pontius Pilate, who was the governor of Judea at that time. You may not be familiar with the name Tiberius, but everyone knows the name Pontius Pilate, because he’s the man who sentenced the Lord to death and he’s named in the Apostles’ Creed, so that his name is mentioned in churches around the world every week. Luke also mentions the names of three tetrarches who were local kings appointed by the Romans. Two of them — Herod (known as Herod Antipas) and Philip — were sons of Herod the Great, who had also been appointed by the Romans to rule over Judea on their behalf. Luke also mentions Lysanias, but we don’t know much about him now.

And then Luke mentions Annas and Caiaphas, who were both high priests at the time. They were related to one another, because Annas was the father-in-law of Caiaphas. Normally there was only one High Priest, but these two priests were appointed at different times by the Romans.

So, Luke mentions Tiberias the Emperor, and Pilate his governor, and three local kings and two high priests. And you can dig out a history book and read up on the lives of these men — apart from Lysanias — and find out when they were alive on the earth. And since that’s the case, then that means we know when John the Baptist began his ministry.

However, it’s a sign of the times that the land of Israel was ruled over at that time by the Roman Emperor and by other rulers who were appointed by the Roman Emperor. Pilate was the Rome-appointed governor. The local kings were also appointed by Rome, as were the high priests. All the names here are a reminder that while the people of Israel had been set free from Babylon, they were still in captivity. They might have been back in the Promised Land, but their life now was nothing like their life in the days of David and Solomon when the land was ruled by God’s appointed King and when the people were free. They were now living under the power of a pagan King in Rome and they were forced to obey him and to pay taxes to him. And the people were not happy and they were waiting for the Lord to send them a new king to overthrow the Romans and to establish God’s kingdom once again. That’s what verse 15 is about. Take a look at verse 15 where it says the people were waiting expectantly and were all wondering in their hearts if John might possibly be the Christ. That is to say, they were waiting expectantly for God to send them a new king like David. The Christ is a title for God’s Spirit-Anointed King. So, the people were waiting for the day when God would send them a king to set them free. And then, at the beginning of Acts, Luke tells that us that the disciples asked the Lord Jesus, ‘Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel.’ They were still expecting the Lord Jesus to overthrow the Romans and to put things back to the way they were in the days of David and Solomon.

But, of course, what the people needed was not salvation from the Romans, but salvation from their sin and misery. Their political bondage to Rome symbolised their spiritual bondage to sin and Satan and death. They needed God to rescue them, not from Roman rule, but from this present evil age and to give them the hope of everlasting life in the new heavens and earth to come.

And so, after mentioning Tiberias and Pilate and all the others in verses 1 and 2, Luke goes on to mention John. He tells us that the word of God came to John in the desert. There’s an interesting contrast here, isn’t there? Tiberias was in Rome, which was the centre of political power in those days. Annas and Caiaphas were in Jerusalem, which was the centre of Jewish religious power in those days. Pilate and the local kings had their own seat of power. But the word of God came to John who was away out in the desert. He wasn’t in the seat of power. He wasn’t among the rich and powerful. He was alone in the desert. And this recalls the original exodus in the days of Moses, because it was when Moses was in the desert that the word of God came to him. And God gave him his orders. And the word of God came to John when he was in the desert. And God gave him his orders to begin his ministry which was to prepare the way for the coming of the Lord.

And so, according to verse 3, John went into all the country around the River Jordan and he preached a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. That is to say, he taught the people that they needed to be baptised. And the significance of baptism can be learned from what we read in Leviticus 12 to 15, which explains all the different ways the people of Israel might become ceremonially unclean. For instance, women became unclean after giving birth. Skin diseases made people unclean. Clothes and buildings could become unclean because of mildew. And so on. And then there were rules about what to do to become clean again. And usually it involved some kind of washing with water. When the people became ceremonially unclean, they could wash them with water in order to become clean again. And so, here’s John telling the people that all of them are unclean. They’re not ceremonially unclean; they’re morally unclean, because they’re sinners who sin against the Lord continually.

And John taught the people that they needed to repent. To repent means to have a change of mind about your sin. Once you were not bothered by sin. But when people repent, they change their mind about their sin and they now hate it and want rid of it, because they realise that their sin is offensive to God. And so, John was saying to the people that they needed to turn away from their sins and they needed to seek God’s forgiveness. And baptism was a sign of God’s willingness to wash away their guilt. Though they were morally and spiritually impure, because they were sinners who sinned against God continually, God was willing to wash away their guilt and to remember their sins no more.

And so, John was the fulfilment of Isaiah’s prophecy, which is quoted in verses 4 to 6. John is the voice of one calling in the desert. He’s the one who is telling the people to prepare the way for the Lord. And the way to prepare the way for the Lord is by turning from your sins and turning to the Lord, who is coming to save his people and to punish his enemies.

And Luke changes the words of Isaiah at the end of the quotation, because he ends the quotation with the promise that all mankind will see God’s salvation. So, God is coming in the person of his Son to save, not just the people of Israel, but to save all mankind, all humanity. That is to say, he will save everyone throughout the world who repents of their sins and turns to him. The Lord is coming to lead his people out of their spiritual bondage and to bring them into the Promised Land of Eternal Life in the new heavens and earth.

Verses 7 to 14

In verses 7 to 14 Luke tells us more about what John said. John refers to the people as a brood of vipers. It’s as if he doesn’t believe that they’re being sincere. They say they are repenting, but are they being sincere? So, if they are sincere about it, then let’s see the evidence. Where is the fruit of your repentance? Anyone can say, ‘I repent’, but where’s the evidence? So, you say you’ve changed your mind about sin and you now hate it. In that case, what difference has it made in your life?

And John adds that they’re not to rely on the fact that they’re descended from Abraham. So what that you’re descended from Abraham? God can turn stones into Abraham’s descendants. So, don’t talk to me about Abraham; show me the difference that repentance makes in your life. That’s what John is saying to them. And he’s saying to them that they need to make sure about this, because God is preparing his ax and he will cut down every tree that does not bear good fruit. In other words, God will condemn and punish everyone who does not turn from their sin and turn to God for forgiveness.

And the people therefore ask: ‘What should we do then?’ And John tells them. If you’ve changed your mind about sin so that you now hate it and want to do what’s right, then be generous with what you own. Share your clothes and food with those who have none. And if you’re a tax-collector, don’t collect more than you’re required to. Don’t overcharge the people in order to make yourself rich. And if you’re a soldier, then don’t abuse your power. Don’t extort money from the people and don’t accuse anyone falsely.

Notice, of course, that he doesn’t say God’s people can’t be tax-collectors and they can’t serve in the army. He doesn’t say that. But he says they must approach their work with a different mindset. And that’s because sin makes us put ourselves first. We put ourselves first. We think of what’s best for me and what I need and what I want. And so, instead of putting our needy neighbour first, we hold on to what we have or we rip them off or we take advantage of them. Sin makes us put ourselves first. But the person who has had a change of mind and heart about sin is prepared to deny self, to say ‘no’ to self, in order to love and serve the people around them. And they’re prepared to do that, because this is God’s will for us. He wants us to love him with all our heart and to love our neighbour.

Verses 15 to 18

And in verses 15 to 18 the people want to know whether John is the one they’ve been waiting for and hoping for. Is he the Christ? Is he God’s Spirit-Anointed King sent by God to save them from their enemies? Is he the one? And so, John tells them that he’s not the one. He’s not the one, but the one they’re waiting for is coming. He’s talking about the Lord Jesus.

And John says that the coming one, the Lord Jesus, is far more powerful than John. John says in verse 16 that he — John — is not worthy to untie the Lord’s sandals. When you went into someone’s house in those days, a slave would have the job of untying your shoes and washing your feet. And so, John is saying that the coming Lord is so much greater and more powerful than he is, that he’s not even fit to be the Lord’s slave.

And John says, ‘I baptise with water.’ And I’m the same. When I baptise people, all I do is make them wet with water. I can’t give them the real thing, which is the forgiveness of their sins. And John was the same: baptism is a sign of God’s willingness to forgive. It’s a sign of God’s willingness to wash our guilt away. But water baptism is only a sign. It’s not the real thing. And only God can forgive. And so, John says that while he, John, baptises with water, the coming one baptises with the Holy Spirit and with fire. So, he’s able to pour out his Spirit on his people; and it’s the Holy Spirit who enables people to receive the forgiveness of their sins, because it’s the Holy Spirit who enables us to believe in the Saviour who died for sinners.

But then the Lord also baptises the fire. And fire in the Bible is often associated with judgment. For instance, right at the end of the book of Isaiah, it says:

See, the Lord is coming with fire,
and his chariots are like a whirlwind;
he will bring down his anger with fury,
and his rebuke with flames of fire.
For with fire and with his sword
the Lord will execute judgment upon all men,
and many will be those slain by the Lord.

So, the Lord comes to give forgiveness to those who turn from their sin and turn to him for salvation. But the Lord will also come to condemn and punish all those who refuse to repent or turn to him. He will punish them for all that they have done wrong. And so, his winnowing fork is in his hands, says John in verse 17. The farmer would pick up the harvested wheat and toss it into the air. The wheat, which was heavy, would fall to the floor, where it was gathered together and kept safe. But the chaff, which was light, was blown away by the wind. And later is was picked up with a shovel and burned in the fire. And John uses this image to describe how the coming Lord will separate those who repent and believe from those who do not. Those who repent and believe will be gathered together to receive eternal life in the new heavens and earth, whereas those who do not repent and believe will be sent away to be punished forever.

And so, John’s message to the people was: repent, because the Lord is coming to save and to punish. And that’s the same message which every preacher is meant to preach today: repent, because the Lord is coming to save and to punish.

And repentance is not something we do once at the beginning of the Christian life and never again. Since we sin everyday, then we should repent everyday; and every day we should turn to the Lord to confess our sins and to ask for his forgiveness and to resolve all over again to walk in the ways of the Lord.

Verses 19 and 20

In the days of the original exodus, the Pharaoh opposed Moses and the people. In the days of the return from exile in Babylon, certain people opposed what Nehemiah was doing to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. And Luke tells us that at the beginning of this new and better exodus, Herod opposed what was happening. He locked John in prison. And there are still many who do not believe and who oppose what God is doing today to rescue his people from this present evil age and to lead us into the Promised Land of Eternal Life. And behind all those who oppose what God is doing is the Devil, who hates the Lord and his people. And since this is the case, since there are many who do not believe and who oppose what God is doing, then God’s people in every age must resolve to stand firm in the faith and not to give in. And we must look to the Lord continually for the help and strength we need while he leads us to the Promised Land in the new and better world to come.