Sermon Tone Analysis

INTRODUCTION

So our Advent season, as we remarked last week, is our time to consider what the arrival of Jesus into the world means—for us, and for our world.

We saw last week that it is only by the grace of God that the coming of Christ into the world in His First Advent (His first coming) was an event to celebrate, and not to mourn.

Because the sinfulness and rebellion of this fallen world cannot endure in the presence of the holiness and righteousness of God.

The only reason this world still exists at all is because Jesus came as a Sacrifice two thousand years ago and not as a Judge (which is how He will come at the end of the age.)

In our passage this morning we are considering the ministry of John the Baptist—the one who was sent by God the Father to announce the arrival of God the Son in the power of God the Spirit:

Luke 3:2–3 (ESV)

2 ...the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness.

3 And he went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

Luke goes on to quote from Isaiah, describing John as

Luke 3:4 (ESV)

4 ...“The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.’”

If you go back to the original text in Isaiah that Luke quotes, the sense of what John came to do is made even more clear:

Isaiah 40:3 (ESV)

3 A voice cries: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

Into the world of the Roman Empire, Herod and the ruling priesthood in Jerusalem, into the world of a people who had rebelled against God’s laws, a people who were lost in their sin, John came to announce that there was a highway coming through—a highway that would usher in the arrival of God’s Kingdom.

You’ve heard of the practice of “eminent domain?”

Where the government can claim that your property is needed for “public use” and can confiscate it from you against your will as long as you are compensated?

In some ways, John was declaring “eminent domain” against the powers and rulers of that day—YHWH was their rightful King, and He was announcing the creation of a highway that would usher in His salvation—even if it wound up destroying the domain of the existing powers.

What we see here in this passage is that

The WORLD must reckon with the advent of the KINGDOM of CHRIST

John’s announcement to the existing powers and authorities (as we will see this week and next week) put them on notice that they were going to answer to a new King.

The old way of doing business.

Because

I.

The advent of the Kingdom INDICTS a CORRUPT nation (Luke 3: 1-2)

Luke makes a very detailed and specific identification of the time when these events took place:

Luke 3:1–2 (ESV)

1 In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, 2 during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness...

One of the reasons that Luke is so careful to dial in exactly when “the word of God came to John” is because this was the first time in 400 years that God had spoken to His people through a prophet!

John was, in fact, the last Old Testament prophet to minister before Jesus came—and he looked the part, too, dressing and living in a way that immediately put people in mind of Elijah, the greatest of the prophets from the Old Testament era (cp.

Matthew 3:4; cp. 2 Kings 1:8).

But it is also highly significant that Luke names all of the governing powers as he opens this account.

He is not only showing us exactly when John’s ministry began, he is also saying that these governing powers were going to be indicted by the coming of the Kingdom of God.

The first power named by Luke was the Roman Empire: “In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being the governor of Judea...” The advent of the Kingdom John was announcing would indict those powers, because

Rome was BRUTAL

The ancient historian Josephus relats the brutality of Pilate, from the day he arrived in Judea in AD 26:

The Lexham Bible Dictionary (Conflict with the Jewish People)

Pilate first offended the Jews by bringing Roman standards—with images of the emperor—into Jerusalem.

Previous prefects had not placed any images in Jerusalem.

The Jewish people sent a delegation to Caesarea and pleaded with Pilate for five days to remove the images from the city.

On the sixth day, Pilate sent soldiers into the crowd.

At his signal, they were to draw their swords and cut the Jews to pieces if they did not allow Caesar’s image.

The Jews fell down together and exposed their necks, for they would rather die than transgress their law.

Pilate, not desiring a revolution, decided to remove the images from Jerusalem (Josephus, Jewish War 2.9.2–3 §§169–74; Antiquities 18.3.1 §§55–59).

The King that John was heralding would indict Rome for its cruelty and brutality.

The next powers listed in Luke 3:1 was Herod and his family--

Luke 3:1 (ESV)

1 ... and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene

Rome was brutal, and

Herod was MORALLY BANKRUPT

Now, this Herod was not the same Herod that we read about in the story of Jesus’ birth—Herod The Great was the one who ordered the massacre of the innocents in an effort to stamp out the possibility of a new King usurping him.

He died shortly after that event, and in his will directed that his three sons (Archelaus, Philip, and Antipas) take over his kingdom.

After Antipas rose to power, he made a trip to Rome, where he stayed with Philip, his brother.

While he was there, he fell in love with Philip’s wife, Herodias.

According to Josephus, Antipas persuaded Herodias to run off with him and divorce Philip, which she did.

(On top of this, Herodias was also Herod The Great’s granddaughter, meaning she was Antipas’ niece as well as his sister-in-law…)

John would go on to directly and repeatedly call Antipas out for his morally bankrupt behavior, leading to his eventual arrest and execution (Mark 6:17-29).

John was announcing that a new kingdom was coming—one that would declare eminent domain over all of Herod’s kingdom, a kingdom that demanded righteousness.

Herod stood condemned by the coming of the Kingdom that John was proclaiming, and was willing to kill that Kingdom’s herald in order to silence its righteous demands.

The advent of the Kingdom John was proclaiming indicted brutality of Rome, the moral bankruptcy of Herod—and it also indicted the ruling priesthood of Jerusalem.

Rome was brutal, Herod was corrupt, and

The priests were APOSTATE (cp.

John 11:48-53)

There is an odd statement in verse 2, as Luke names the high priest in power at this time:

Luke 3:2 (ESV)

2 during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness.

According to the Law of Moses, there was only to be one high priest—so why are there two names here?

The answer takes us deep into the intrigue and politics of the Jewish rulership of Judea during this period—there was a complex and shifting power struggle going on among different factions of the Jews.

Annas and Caiaphas were both members of the Sadducee sect, wealthy and powerful families who came from a sort of liberalized religious background, willing to cut deals with Rome in order to obtain the power of the high priesthood.

During this time, the Roman governor (Pilate) actually possessed the high priest’s vestments, and would only release them to the individual that had his approval.

(This was Rome’s way of guaranteeing the cooperation of the Jewish Sanhedrin and priesthood).

Annas had originally been high priest, but had been deposed by Pilate’s predecessor.

His son-in-law, Caiaphas, was the designated High Priest, but Annas still had a great deal of power and influence (as demonstrated by the fact that when Jesus was arrested in Gethsemane, he was taken to Annas’ house first, and only appeared before Caiaphas when Annas was through with Him - John 18:19-24).

Both Annas and Caiaphas were so wrapped up in the pursuit of their own power and influence that when the Kingdom of God was standing before them in the person of Christ, not only did they not recognize Him, but they saw Him as a threat to their power and position, and determined to kill Him:

John 11:48–50 (ESV)

48 If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.”

49 But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all.

50 Nor do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish.”

The advent of the Kingdom indicted the brutality of Rome, the moral bankruptcy of Herod, the apostasy of the priesthood.

All of those rulers had to reckon with the arrival of the Kingdom that John was proclaiming, and right down to today, corrupt and brutal and apostate leaders must reckon with the demands of the Kingdom of Christ.

It indicts a corrupt nation, and

II.

The advent of the Kingdom CONVICTS a GUILTY people (Luke 3:3-4, cp.

v. 7)

Luke lays out the exact historical context of when this account takes place, giving us everything from the year of Tiberius’ reign all the way down to which high priest(s) were in office because of the significance of what happened:

Luke 3:2 (ESV)

2 during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness.

This was a monumental development because, up to this point in history God had not spoken to His people through a prophet for four hundred years!

The last Old Testament prophet, Malachi, closes his book with God’s promise that

Malachi 4:5–6 (ESV)

5 “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes.

6 And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.”

When John came out of the wilderness to prepare a highway for the arrival of the Kingdom of God, he was coming with the first words God had spoken to His people in four centuries!

And what was the message that John took to the people?

Luke 3:3 (ESV)

3 And he went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

See the grace of God to His willful, stubborn people!

After four hundred years of silence, of waiting to hear from God, of wondering whether God had forgotten them, His first words to them were not words of judgment or condemnation or warning—when the Word of God came to His people, it was a message of reconciliation!

John went out into the region around the Jordan river with a message of reconciliation!