Luke 3: Good News from John the Baptist
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
<<PRAY>>
Regarding John the Baptist
Dec 6, 2020 - John 1:6-8 - John the Witness to the Light - our identity, mission, purpose - made by Jesus, to bear witness to Him, to call others to believe in Him
Dec 27, 2020 - John 1:19-34 - John declares, “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world” - How should we think about Christ’s identity and our own?
Agreeing with Jesus about ourselves
Agreeing with Jesus about Himself
CPS: Because the salvation of God is here, repent and believe the Gospel!
Salvation is for all, but all must repent and believe
Org. Sent: Look with me at Luke chapter 3, and see what John’s ministry proclaimed in preparation for the arrival of Jesus, the Savior, starting with verses 1-6.
I. Even the Mighty Must Answer to God (vv1-6)
I. Even the Mighty Must Answer to God (vv1-6)
Note JtB - the herald of Messiah - comes to speak a word that even Caesar must obey or perish
Note JtB uses language Rome would have recognized - kerusso, evangelizo, soterion
<<READ 1-6>>
The Word of God came
In the midst of a darkened time
Who seemed to be the power on the ground?
Tiberius Caesar was reigning, Pontius Pilate was governing, Herod, Philip, and Lysanius were tetrarchs,
Annas & Caiaphas were high priest (Caiaphas officially, Annas the power behind the priesthood)
Even the most important role in Judaism at the time had been corrupted - pagan foreigners assigned the role
How did they make things seem very dark?
Pontius Pilate was a ruthless governor, who was so bloodthirsty and godless that (Luke 13:1-5) he even profaned / defiled the sacrifices of some Galileans, mixing their own blood into their sacrifices
Cruelty marked his governorship; he trampled Jewish customs & beliefs, hated Jews
Stole money from the Temple treasury to build aqueducts, beat those who objected (many to death)
This Herod (Antipas) ruled from his father Herod the Great’s death (4BC) until about 39AD.
Divorced his wife & forced his brother to do the same, then married his former sister-in-law (making it 2 divorces, one incestuous marriage)
Put JtB in prison, later had him decapitated
But God never stopped being in charge; the coming of the Messiah signaled the end of their day
Note that John, the weirdo in the wilderness, is the one we still talk about
In the wilderness
Revelation - Exodus 3 - God spoke to Moses in the wilderness
Repentance - Isaiah 40:3-5
To John the son of Zechariah
Speaking truth to sinners, calling people back to God in fulfillment of God’s promises (esp Malachi 3 and Isaiah 40)
Even to those who ruled and reigned
Even to those who seemed beyond hope
Speaking peace to those who would turn back to God
And warning to those who would not
The Word of God was the real power on the ground
And John called even the mighty to repent, and it cost him dearly (see vv18-20)
Isaiah 40:1-5 quote - If Caesar was coming to town, Pilate would sure send his troops out to clear the roads into town, get the merchants’ carts out of the way, etc
But this is a word to everyone - it’s not Caesar who’s coming. It’s the Lord. The warning: even Caesar had better prepare.
Look & recognize - what you need most is peace with God. And even the mighty must answer.
What message did God give to John?
v3 - Proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins - “be baptized - be immersed in the water - as a public symbol of repentance - a public statement that you have gone astray but you’re turning back to God - because your only hope is forgiveness”
Baptism - (7/19/2020 - Christian Baptism is a God-given symbol of our salvation - tells the world that you belong to Jesus). Like Israel crossing the Red Sea, it means you’ve passed out of your old life of slavery to sin, and now you belong to Jesus.
John’s baptism was a precursor to Christian baptism, it’s not the same. John even says that a greater baptism is coming with Jesus.
John didn’t invent baptism, but this was unique - it was a one-time baptism that applied to everyone, proclaiming to the world, “I repent, I need forgiveness, my only hope is that God is merciful.”
ILLUST: Kid goes to the bathroom, you don’t hear the faucet, you say, “Wash your hands.” Your kid says, “I did.” You say, “Let me smell them.” Which, by the way, is gross. But here, John proclaims to everyone - even kings and priests - “trudge down here to the water, humble yourself before God, get your fancy sandals wet or else get your feet muddy, but either way, get in this water and declare to the world that you are turning away from your former life. Mr Pharisee, come down here on the same level with the tax collector and say to the world that your only hope is that God is merciful.”
vv4-6 - Luke quotes Isaiah 40:3-5, spoken by Isaiah 700 years before Christ. Isaiah proclaimed that a voice would cry out in the wilderness to prepare the way of the LORD, because the LORD Himself was coming to save. John is that voice.
John’s message was that everyone, even the mighty, had better get serious, because the LORD is coming.
So who likes to get humbled? Who likes to get called out for sins? Nobody. That makes it particularly dangerous to tell the mighty that even they will have to answer to God, because they’re not used to answering to anybody.
John is calling them out like kids with dirty hands, but it’s even worse. He calls them a bunch of snakes.
You know what’s worse? Calling them kids with dirty hands.
You know what’s even more dangerous? Calling people “brood of vipers.”
And that’s what comes next.
vv7-9 -
Human nature - to try to get away with things, pretend we’re good -
Who is most likely to think they have nothing to repent of? Often the mighty. Are we living “in the midst” of a Tiberius, a Pilate, a Herod?
Look, in the roiling turmoil of all this, BOOM - the Word of God came to John. God didn’t ask Caesar for permission, and the message isn’t dependent on anything. Every valley shall be filled.
John’s message is that even the mighty must answer to God.
Because His salvation isn’t just for the weak, or those who know they need Him, or the obvious. Salvation is for all to see.
II. Even the Worst May Be Saved by God (vv7-14)
II. Even the Worst May Be Saved by God (vv7-14)
<<READ vv7-9>>
Now, the ministry of John the Baptist is in all four Gospels, and Matthew chapter 3 fills in a detail at this point. John sees many of the Pharisees and Sadducees - the religious leaders - coming out to be baptized. And you’d think that would be a good thing, like they’re getting humble before God, admitting their need of a savior, but listen to what we find out later in Luke. Jesus is asking the people about John the Baptist:
What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. This is he of whom it is written,
“ ‘Behold, I send my messenger before your face,
who will prepare your way before you.’
I tell you, among those born of women none is greater than John. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.” (When all the people heard this, and the tax collectors too, they declared God just, having been baptized with the baptism of John, but the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected the purpose of God for themselves, not having been baptized by him.)
Many of them went down to be baptized, but something stopped them. John’s ministry was a bolt from the blue, and people took notice. Even Pharisees and Saducees go down to the Jordan to get baptized, and then they find out that getting baptized means you’re a sinner in need of forgiveness. You get in the same river as the pagans, you go down under the same water as the prostitutes. John goes out of his way to tell them that they’re much worse than they think.
He starts the conversation by calling them a brood of vipers - a bunch of venomous snake-babies - and their arrival on the banks of the Jordan River is like snakes fleeing ahead of a brushfire.
And in verses 7-9, he warns them against false repentance and false religion.
He starts and ends with the idea of fruit. John’s baptism is powerless, it won’t help anybody escape God’s wrath. It’s a sign, a picture of repentance.
If his listeners thought they could appease God by doing another religious act, they’ve got everything upside down.
Repentance means turning around, reversing course, turning to God.
John’s Baptism isn’t repentance, it doesn’t give forgiveness. It proclaims forgiveness. It says, “I was lost, separated from God, I didn’t know Him, but God rescued me; He took me up in His arms, and turned me around, and He gets all the credit. And now, I belong to Him.”
And John says, repent for real. Turn to God for real. And true repentance will be accompanied by fruit.
And he gives them a second warning: Don’t think your religious heritage makes you exempt. That was the real sting of John’s preaching - many of them thought that God’s wrath would only be against the Gentiles, that the children of Israel were exempt. But John says that without true repentance, they might be genetic children of Abraham, but they’re spiritual sons of serpents.
Their family heritage meant they grew up around the Bible, they heard the stories, they knew God’s promises to Israel. They even dwelled in the land promised to Abraham. And those were all good things. But without repentance, they were wasted. John’s message is clear - not one single person would escape God’s judgment without repentance.
And, he says, the time is short. The axe is already set to swing.
So look what happens next, in vv10-14.
<<READ vv10-11>>
What does the fruit of repentance look like? It looks like love for neighbor. John anticipates Jesus’s teaching that the greatest commandments in all of God’s Law are to love the LORD your God with all your heart, and mind, and strength; and love your neighbor as yourself.
And in verses 12-14, John applies his teaching to two very specific groups. Despised groups.
Because even the mighty must answer to God, but even the worst can be saved by God.
Tax collectors were hated by everyone, but Jewish tax collectors were seen not just as bad guys, but traitors. The Roman taxation system worked like this:
Rome sets taxes. Some rich person pays for the contract to collect the taxes, hires a bunch of tax collectors and soldiers, and sends them out. But in order to make the contract pay for itself, the bigwig adds a surcharge. But you can see where this is going - what if the guy who comes to your door adds his own surcharge, too? And that’s what happened.
John doesn’t tell them to leave their positions. He says that true repentance includes turning away from grift and extortion.
APPLY: Imagine what it would be like, to be in a job where everyone thinks you’re a crook, because you probably are, and suddenly you’re told that repentance will change how you behave.
A repentant tax collector is going to find that people still think he’s a crook, or he’ll find out that his hired bullies aren’t as content with the new arrangement.
And friends, when you repent, you may find that major changes come your way, not because you must leave your job or major or friend group, or even because you want to, but because a desire to walk with God puts you at odds with people.
d
EVEN THE MIGHTY MUST ANSWER; EVEN THE WORST CAN BE SAVED
Look at verses 15-20 with me.
III. Everyone Who Repents and Trusts in Jesus Has Salvation (vv15-20)
III. Everyone Who Repents and Trusts in Jesus Has Salvation (vv15-20)
<<READ vv15-17>>
John makes sure nobody misses the point in his ministry. This is why I said that we shouldn’t forget that John’s baptism was just a precursor to Christian baptism. John’s baptism was merely a sign of repentance. His ministry was a big deal, but it was nothing compared to the ministry of Jesus Christ.
John is just a voice, crying out. A prophetic call to turn back to God before it’s too late. But just around the corner, the LORD Himself was coming onto the scene. And John says that Christ had a baptism, too - with the Holy Spirit and fire.
This is the saving reality that John’s baptism prophesied and proclaimed.
John’s baptism separated the people into two groups: Those who had gotten dunked in the Jordan and those who hadn’t.
Jesus’ baptism makes a much more important distinction: Between those who are saved and those who face judgment.
A farmer at the threshing floor would use his winnowing fork to separate the wheat from the chaff. The grains of wheat would fall to the threshing floor, and the chaff would be tossed away.
John says that’s what the Christ would do - He would gather His people into the safety of His barns, but those who stubbornly refuse will face unquenchable fire.
And Luke concludes his account of John’s ministry where he started - with Herod the tetrarch.
<<READ vv18-20>>
John’s unapologetic, God-given message was good news, wasn’t it? Did it sound like good news? Apparently not to Herod.
Because Herod didn’t hear, “Good news! Humble yourself before God, bear fruit in keeping with repentance. Even you, you son of a viper, even you can be saved.”
That’s what he should have heard. Instead, he wanted John silenced.
APPLICATION
So look again at the good news, in verses 16-17 - <<READ>>
God’s judgment is real. If you want your preacher to shut up about it, you don’t want the truth, you don’t want good news. You just want someone to put you back to sleep.
There is no good news that doesn’t start from a place of truth: not one single person will escape God’s judgment without repentance.
That means that you and the person in the pew next to you, and the person across the room, and the person in the governor’s mansion, need the same thing before God. Forgiveness of sins.
But the good news doesn’t stop with our need. It tells us how God provides our need.
Those who were truly repentant in John’s audience that day were baptized in hope of salvation.
They didn’t know Jesus yet, they didn’t know He would die and rise again. They just knew their only hope was that God would save them.
But now that Christ has come, we have a more complete picture.
John’s baptism looked forward to the baptism in the Holy Spirit. Christian baptism is a fuller picture, a more complete symbol of baptism in the Holy Spirit. When a Christian gets baptized, they are proclaiming that Jesus died for their sins, that they believe that He rose again, and that He is their LORD.
Christian baptism is a testament or testimony that Jesus has rescued you. And if you haven’t been baptized, and you want to declare that you belong to Jesus, that He has given you eternal life, grab the prayer card in your pew and just jot your name and contact info, and indicate that you want to be baptized, and hand it to me or AP, or put it in the offering box after the service, or send us an email, and we’ll baptize you.
Friend, Jesus is the LORD, God with us. And Paul says
For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Because even the mighty are powerless to save themselves. Even the rich are spiritually bankrupt before God. But even the worst can be saved if they trust in Him.
Your heritage is no benefit for salvation, but your history is no bar. Jesus Christ calls to you, no matter what you’ve done, no matter how religious or non-religious you’ve been, no matter how you’ve spent your days or nights, He calls to you with the simple truth:
Everyone who comes to Him will be saved.
For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit,
But first, you must realize that you need to be saved.
Do you protest when John calls you a child of a snake? Are you offended when he says that God will cut down every tree that does not bear good fruit and throw it into the fire?
If so, look at your heart. Why are you so convinced God has an obligation to overlook a single thing you’ve ever done? And why does your heart pound so loudly, and try to drown out the voice that says, “No, I need to be rescued, too”?
Friend, the Good News is that Jesus holds out salvation to you, as a gift, if you will repent and believe. Don’t let pride keep you from knowing the peace of God that passes all understanding.
Or maybe your heart doesn’t protest. Maybe the opposite. Maybe you know John’s right, but you’re sure that you don’t belong among God’s people.
Friend, the Good News is that Jesus died and rose again, He paid for the sins of all who would believe, so that the tax collectors and the Pharisees could all come to Him. There is no sin too great for His blood to pay for. There is no one whose past is so dark that He can’t reach.
Jesus says
Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.
<<CONCLUDE AT TABLE>>