Sermon Tone Analysis

*Intro* – So far in Luke we ‘ve seen the birth of Jesus, and His forerunner, John.

Except for Jesus’s temple appearance at age 12, there followed 30 years of silence for both men when they were out of the public eye, being prepared by God for their brief but world-changing ministries.

This morning John’s ministry begins – his ministry to prepare the way for the coming of Christ.

The Jews were expecting a magical Messiah who would deliver them from Rome.

They had no concept of their need for spiritual deliverance.

Major attitude changes were required to prepare them for the true Messiah.

Over 700 years before, God had foreseen the need for someone to prepare the way.

Isaiah prophesied in 40: 3) A voice cries: ‘In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.’”

I was sitting in a hotel room in Columbus, Ohio in 1992 that overlooked the local freeway.

Suddenly traffic ceased and I wondered if there had been an accident.

But shortly an entourage of limos passed with sirens blaring, lights flashing.

It turned out President Bush had been in town for a campaign appearance, causing a lot of special preparation.

Everyone who visits the Queen gets special protocol training.

Similarly Luke tells us how John went about preparing the Jewish people for Messiah’s coming.

In the end, John tells us in John 1: 11 that while “He came to his own, his own people did not receive him.”

Ultimately, the nation rejected Him.

But through His death for sin, Jesus continues to offer Himself to us.

But our hearts need to be prepared.

Let’s see why and how.

*I.

The Mess (1-2a) – Shows why we need Him*

Vv. 1-2a: “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 (stop there for a moment).

Luke has two reasons for giving us this section.

As a careful historian, he is giving the historical setting for the gospel.

Ours is a faith rooted in history.

It has verifiability.

It deals with real people and facts.

It is subject to reasonable investigation; it has substance.

Luke notes we are in the 15th year of Tiberius Caesar who became co-ruler with Augustus in AD 12. Combine this with John 2:20 where we find that the temple has been 46 years in building by that time and Josephus tells us it started in 19 BC – and that Luke 3:23 tells us Jesus began His ministry at about age 30, having been born shortly before Herod died in 4 BC – we arrive at a date of sometime around 27 AD for this event.

But this list also emphasizes the darkness of the times.

The list reads like a rogues gallery of the biggest villains of their age.

Eventually they would kill both John and Jesus.

They depict the darkness of Godlessness.

But they also remind us of the light of God’s presence.

Yes, they will kill Jesus, but His resurrection will demonstrate His power over any darkness.

At the top of this messed up world, over all, was Tiberius the stepson of Caesar Augustus.

He started well, but over time degenerated into one of the most licentious and cruel rulers in world history.

Herod the Great ruled Palestine at the time Jesus was born.

However, he died shortly after and his kingdom was divided between three of his sons.

Archelaus, who was given control of Judea was a bad man.

Mary and Joseph avoided Judea on their way back from Egypt specifically to avoid him.

Within a couple of years even the Romans could not stomach him and so they appointed a governor in his place.

Thus, Pontius Pilate was in his sixth year as governor of Judea – a brutal ruler who hated the Jews almost as much as they hated him.

Philip governed the far north regions with tolerance – best of the lot.

He built Caesarea Philippi which was important later in the ministry of Christ.

Herod is Herod Antipas who ruled Galilee with an iron rod for over 40 years.

He seduced the wife of his brother Philip and later had John the Baptist killed when John condemned their actions.

Jesus refers to him as “that fox”.

The Jews did not see themselves as part of this darkness.

They had on spiritual blinders.

They were the chosen people, looking for a promised Messiah to rescue them from Rome.

They saw deliverance as their birthright and that was their agenda.

They completely missed the OT prophesies of the suffering Messiah, and the need for a new and cleansed heart.

They had totally misfired on their mission to be a blessing to other nations.

Their expectations were in dire need of retro-fit.

No wonder a forerunner to prepare the way was required.

Their expectations overlooked the gross sin in their own existence and darkness in their own hearts.

Luke mentions the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas” in v. 2 – representatives of Jewish leadership that was corrupt beyond redemption.

There was actually only one high priest.

Annas was a long-time high priest who had been ousted by the Romans several years previously.

But he retained power through various sons who followed him.

Current high priest Caiphas was the son-in-law of Annas.

Annas was the real power.

They presided later in the illegal trial and sentencing of Jesus.

The religious scene was an unmitigated mess of corruption and sin.

Luke’s depiction of the darkness of the times shows the need for help.

But any life without Christ is the same sinful, shameful mess.

The Bible says in Eph 2:1-2, “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience.”

People without Christ live normal lives oblivious to the fact that they are spiritually dead until their lostness is somehow brought home to them.

The illusion of freedom covers our enslavement to our own lusts.

The fact is that we as sinners are so used to living with sin that we have no concept of the sinfulness of sin as seen by a holy God.

We keep covering ourselves in fig leaves we’ve sewn together and think all is well.

Listen to God’s description of the man without God in Psa 36: 1-3: “1)Transgression speaks to the wicked deep in his heart; there is no fear of God before his eyes.

2) For he flatters himself in his own eyes that his iniquity cannot be found out and hated.

3) The words of his mouth are trouble and deceit.”

Our world has largely lost any fear of the Lord or sense of the awfulness of sin.

To know why, you need look no further than our churches.

One of America’s most popular television preachers said not long ago: I don’t think that anything has been done in the name of Christ and under the banner of Christianity that has proven more destructive to human personality, and hence counter-productive to the evangelistic enterprise, than the unchristian, uncouth strategy of attempting to make people aware of their lost and sinful condition.

That was Robert Schuller and there are a lot more like him.

That approach suggests the Bible errs in saying, “All we like sheep have gone astray.”

Why would you look for a Savior when you see nothing to be saved from?

That’s why Paul started Eph 2 the way he did and the reason Luke started Luke 3 the way he did – to point us toward the bankruptcy of life without Christ.

To pave the way to Him.

*II.

The Messenger (2b)*

Now into the vacuum of hopelessness, v. 2b to introduces the messenger – the one who will prepare the way for Christ.

“The word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness.”

Simple statement; filled with meaning.

Take the first phrase -- The word of God came to John.

That phraseology is found nowhere else in the NT, but it is all over the OT.

It tells us multiple things.

First, it tells us John is in the long line of OT prophets, which is exactly how Jesus identifies him later.

The main function of a prophet was to deliver a message from God.

Second, it tells us that the message is from God.

This is divine revelation.

What modern man in his arrogance has declared impossible, God claims as His unique right.

Remember Carl Sagan, the personable astronomer who became the spokesman for his generation with his television series Cosmos which made people aware of the billions and billions of galaxies out there?

He perfectly captured the spirit of his times and of modern man’s faith in naturalism in the first line of his book, Cosmos, “The cosmos is all there was, is, or ever will be.”

That is the starting assumption of man without God.

But it assumes too much, doesn’t it?