015 The Forerunner – Part 1
Luke 3:1-20 (1-6)
November 5, 2017
This morning we pick up with Luke’s gospel now 18 years later.
Luke spent 2 long chapters outlining for us the historical births
Of John the Baptist and Jesus.
We learned a great deal about who Jesus is and why He came
And even the type of attitude that is required
If we are to be those who will recognize Him.
And last time Luke finished setting the foundation by revealing to us what Jesus was doing for the first 30 years of His life.
That can be summed up by saying that He was “increasing in wisdom”
• He was learning the human condition.
• He was learning the hardships and difficulties of obedience.
• He was suffering every temptation.
• He was earning a degree in human compassion.
• And He was demonstrating victory over the flesh.
This is what Jesus did for the first 30 years of His life.
THIS MORNING we move now into the period of His earthly ministry,
And it all starts with the arrival of John the Baptist.
Luke has already given us part of our theology on John the Baptist.
In Luke chapter 1 we learned how the angel Gabriel appeared to Zacharias while he was in the temple and revealed not only the birth but also the purpose of this man.
Luke 1:13-17 “But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your petition has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will give him the name John. “You will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth. “For he will be great in the sight of the Lord; and he will drink no wine or liquor, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit while yet in his mother’s womb. “And he will turn many of the sons of Israel back to the Lord their God. “It is he who will go as a forerunner before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, TO TURN THE HEARTS OF THE FATHERS BACK TO THE CHILDREN, and the disobedient to the attitude of the righteous, so as to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”
Gabriel revealed that this child was coming for a purpose.
He was coming to fulfill the promise Malachi made over 400 years prior.
He was coming as a forerunner to prepare the people for a Holy Messiah Whom they by no means were ready to meet.
And now that both of those boys have grown up,
It is time for Luke to take us into their ministry.
Luke 3 focuses on the ministry of John.
There are 6 aspects here that Luke focuses on and we will spend the next few weeks working through them.
#1 JOHN’S CULTURE
Luke 3:1-2
As we have said many times over, Luke is a historian.
Certainly he is a historian with a point, but he is still a historian.
He validates and documents everything.
And so it is not hard to find the exact time of when all this ministry began.
Here Luke gives a list of the prevailing rulers of the day.
First Luke sets the date as “the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar” who was of course the ruler of all the Roman Empire.
Tiberius first became a co-regent with his predecessor Augustus in A.D. 11
Which means the date for John’s arrival is A.D. 26
It was also in A.D. 26 that Tiberius appointed “Pontius Pilate…governor of Judea”
You are familiar with Pilate as he was the man who presided over the trial of Jesus and who ultimately handed Him over to be crucified.
• Pilate was hard, corrupt, blood-thirsty man.
• He dealt out much misery on the Jews, but was also one to cow under public pressure as we will see at the trial of Jesus.
• Pilate will eventually be removed from office in A.D. 36 after he mistook some Samaritans as insurrectionists and had them killed.
At the same time “Herod was tetrarch of Galilee”
• This is not the same Herod who ordered the slaughter of the babies of Bethlehem (that was Herod the great).
This was Herod Antipas his son.
• This is the Herod who would behead John the Baptist and mock Jesus during trial.
Luke also reveals that “Philip was tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis”
Philip was also the son of Herod the great and brother to Herod Antipas.
• It is Philip who was married to Herodias who was having an affair with Herod Antipas thus incurring John’s rebuke and subsequent imprisonment.
Not much is known about “Lysanias…tetrarch of Abilene”
These were the Gentile rulers of the day, and by in large we identify them as corrupt and immoral and blood-thirsty men.
From a religious perspective we have:
“the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas”
Annas was not currently high priest, that title belonged to Caiaphas,
But Annas definitely called the shots.
I’ve often referred to Annas as the god-father of the Jewish mafia.
The office of high-priest often went to the highest bidder and not only had Annas been high priest, but so had 5 of his sons and one of his grand-sons.
Caiaphas was the son-in-law of Annas.
And these guys ran the show in Jerusalem.
Of course you remember the flea market that went on in Jerusalem where they were practicing extortion in the temple by selling “temple certified” sacrificial animals and gouging the people. It was the place where Jesus turned over the tables and ran everyone out with a whip.
That flea market was called “The Bizarre of Annas”.
They ran the money trade in Jerusalem.
Both of these men would host their own private trials with Jesus
Before ultimately handing Him over to Pilate for the death sentence.
It is obvious that Luke gives you all those names
Because more than just wanting you to know the date,
Luke wants you to know the culture.
Politically the culture can be described as “Gentile Domination”
Religiously the culture can be described as “Religious Corruption”
IT WAS NOT A GOOD TIME TO BE A JEW.
They were stuck in the back corner of the totally immoral Roman Empire
And were led by the most corrupt religious leaders Israel had ever known.
And it was in this culture that “the word of God came to John”
And please note again that this was a remarkable thing.
• We talked about this when the angels showed up to speak with Zacharias and
Mary that there had been no angelic vision for over 400 years.
• Well until John showed up there had been no prophetic word for over 400
years either.
• John was the last of the Old Testament prophets.
• God raised him up and God sent him with a message for Israel.
Luke furthermore indicates that this word came to John
“in the wilderness”
This is one of the most identifiable characteristics of John.
Matthew’s gospel revealed him as:
Matthew 3:4 “Now John himself had a garment of camel’s hair and a leather belt around his waist; and his food was locusts and wild honey.”
John not only preached against the culture,
John was a living contradiction to the culture.
This man was not worldly in the least.
He did not partake in any of the worldly comforts and luxuries or vices
That his contemporaries enjoyed.
Jesus said of him:
Matthew 11:7-10 “As these men were going away, Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John, “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? “But what did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothing? Those who wear soft clothing are in kings’ palaces! “But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and one who is more than a prophet. “This is the one about whom it is written, ‘BEHOLD, I SEND MY MESSENGER AHEAD OF YOU, WHO WILL PREPARE YOUR WAY BEFORE YOU.’”
• John was not a wishy-washy man…
• John was not a man seeking worldly comforts…
• John was a man on a mission…
And don’t think the world didn’t despise him for it.
Even later Jesus would say:
Matthew 11:16-19 “But to what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the market places, who call out to the other children, and say, ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.’ “For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon!’ “The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Behold, a gluttonous man and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.”
Jesus revealed that the world took issue with John’s meager lifestyle
Even accusing him of having a demon.
They could not figure that anyone
Would so turn his back on worldly pleasures
Unless a demon had driven him to it.
John had no demon, he just practiced what he preached.
• John came to a corrupt and immoral society
• And not only preached the holiness of God
• But lived in such a way as to also condemn the world.
That is John’s culture
#2 JOHN’S CALLING
Luke 3:3-6
Here Luke sums up John’s ministry in one verse.
(3) “And he came into all the district around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins;”
John was a preacher of repentance.
And we would do ourselves well to talk about this for a minute.
When Luke says that John preached “repentance”
We would do well to find out: WHAT IS REPENTANCE?
The Greek word translates METANOIA
Which means “a change of mind”
Some have likened it then to mean to
“turn around and go a different direction”
But just because the definition indicates an intellectual decision,
Don’t assume for a second that it is merely mental.
It is a decision of the mind of such magnitude and commitment
That it changes the actions of a person.
If I tell you that I have decided that chocolate ice cream
Is better than vanilla ice cream,
But all I ever eat is vanilla, you’re going to question
Whether or not I ever really had a change of mind aren’t you?
What “repentance” means is that a person begins to see sin differently.
Listen to James:
James 4:8-9 “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be miserable and mourn and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom.”
JAMES DOES NOT SPEAK of a person who still loves sin but who has decided not to do it;
JAMES SPEAKS of a person who has a complete change of mind regarding sin altogether.
No longer does the individual love sin, now they hate it.
No longer do they celebrate sin, now they mourn over it.
It is much deeper than just a surface change of direction.
Biblical repentance is a total change of perspective,
A change of heart regarding a person’s view of sin.
THIS IS WHAT JOHN WAS PREACHING.
It is also important to recognize that
REPENTANCE IS VERY DIFFERENT FROM REMORSE.
And the church has often gotten this confused.
Tuesday we just celebrated
The 500th anniversary of the beginning of the Reformation.
Some of you who have been with us on Sunday nights will remember this,
But the issue of repentance was very instrumental in the start of the Reformation.
To give you the quick version.
• You had Martin Luther who was a German monk who entered the ministry because he was afraid God would kill him otherwise.
• Through his studies Luther became acquainted with the doctrine of Justification by Faith and was saved.
• While serving as a professor in Wittenberg Luther encountered a man named Johan Tetzel.
Here is what happened:
• Pope Leo had bankrupted the Catholic church while seeking to build St. Peter’s basilica and he was looking for ways to produce income.
• In steps a man named Albrecht of Brandenburg who wanted to be archbishop of Mainz.
• In order to obtain the bishoprict he offered 7,000 golden duckets (one for each of the 7 deadly sins). Pope Leo countered with 12,000 (one for each of the 12 apostles). They settled on 10,000 (one for each of the Ten Commandments)
• The problem was that Albrecht of Brandenburg did not have 10,000 gold duckets, but had to arrange a loan with the bank. In order to help him pay off his debt to the bank, Pope Leo agreed to allow Albrecht to grant indulgences at the giving of alms.
• Albrecht acquired the services of a man named Johan Tetzel who then went to town with his very sensualistic and dramatic preaching and threatening people with the fires of hell and talking about how much pain their deceased relatives were in in Purgatory, etc.
He even coined the phrase,
“Every time a coin in the coffer rings a soul from Purgatory springs”
When Tetzel made his way to Wittenberg,
Luther was furious and in response wrote the 95 thesis
And nailed it to the door of the castle church.
Now, one of Luther’s main issues with Tetzel was that
He led people to ATTRITION but not CONTRITION
DO YOU KNOW THE DIFFERENCE?
ATTRITION is basically a decision made because of fear of punishment. It is a decision made because someone doesn’t want to go to hell.
CONTRITION is repentance motivated by sorrow over sin and having offended God.
The gospel call has never been a call to attrition…
Where you just scare people enough with the realities of hell that they agree to “put a coin in your coffer” or in our day “walk an aisle”
The gospel call has always been a call to contrition,
Where a person comes to grips with the heinous nature of their sin
And how they have offended God
And so they leave it behind out of love for God.
TO BETTER UNDERSTAND IT.
• A person of attrition would keep doing their sin, regardless of
what God thought, so long as no punishment was involved.
• Whereas a person of contrition would stop their sin even if
punishment remained simply because it offends God.
DO YOU SEE THE DIFFERENCE?
WE ARE STILL CONFUSED ABOUT THAT TODAY.
• We have scores of people in the church who agreed to walk an aisle and even
get baptized if that means they can escape hell.
• But in all reality it had nothing to do with actually hating sin or loving the God
they offended.
Whereas remorse just hates the reality of punishment.
Repentance hates their sin, not just the judgment it brings.
Because of this misunderstanding throughout the centuries
Many people have been willing to do some sort of penance even though they never quit loving their sin.
And this has never pleased God.
Isaiah 1:10-15 “Hear the word of the LORD You rulers of Sodom; Give ear to the instruction of our God, You people of Gomorrah. “What are your multiplied sacrifices to Me?” Says the LORD. “I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams And the fat of fed cattle; And I take no pleasure in the blood of bulls, lambs or goats. “When you come to appear before Me, Who requires of you this trampling of My courts? “Bring your worthless offerings no longer, Incense is an abomination to Me. New moon and sabbath, the calling of assemblies — I cannot endure iniquity and the solemn assembly. “I hate your new moon festivals and your appointed feasts, They have become a burden to Me; I am weary of bearing them. “So when you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide My eyes from you; Yes, even though you multiply prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are covered with blood.”
Those were people who would jump through hoops to keep God happy,
But they still loved their sin.
THAT IS NOT REPENTANCE.
Now, it is also worth noting that
While repentance must affect the heart and the mind, but if it doesn’t affect the actions then it’s still not repentance.
Consider what John will tell the crowds later in the chapter:
Luke 3:7-8 “So he began saying to the crowds who were going out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? “Therefore bear fruits in keeping with repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father,’ for I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham.”
Repentance is a change of mind that results in a change of behavior.
• If you just try to change the behavior without changing the mind, it doesn’t work.
• If you try to change the mind without changing the behavior, that doesn’t work either.
BECAUSE AT THE HEART OF REPENTANCE IS
A LOVE FOR AND A DESIRE FOR GOD.
A repentant person is running from sin
Because they are running to God.
John MacArthur spoke of it like this:
“Repentance is not merely an intellectual change of mind about who Christ is, or superficial remorse over the consequences of sin. It is a radical turning from sin to God; a repudiation of the old life and a turning to God for salvation from the penalty and dominion of sin. In 1 Thessalonians 1:9, Paul wrote that the Thessalonians “turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God.” Those who come to Him broken in spirit, humble, and mourning over their sins will experience God’s forgiveness.”
(MacArthur, John [The MacArthur New Testament Commentary: Luke 1-5; Moody Press, Chicago, IL; 2009] pg. 208)
It is a decision to leave sin because God hates it and to run to Him.
Paul gives a good description of repentance in talking to the Corinthians:
2 Corinthians 7:9-11 “I now rejoice, not that you were made sorrowful, but that you were made sorrowful to the point of repentance; for you were made sorrowful according to the will of God, so that you might not suffer loss in anything through us. For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death. For behold what earnestness this very thing, this godly sorrow, has produced in you: what vindication of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what avenging of wrong! In everything you demonstrated yourselves to be innocent in the matter.”
Notice there that Paul spoke first of their sorrow over their sin
Which led them to repentance.
They were sorry because they had offended God and that sorrow resulted in “earnestness…vindication…fear…longing…zeal…avenging of wrong!”
They grew to hate their sin
And that change of mind caused them to run in the other direction.
Let me give you a couple more really good illustrations of repentance.
TURN TO: PSALMS 51
You are familiar with this Psalm, it is David’s response to God after learning of God’s displeasure of David’s affair with Bathsheba and murder of her husband.
TURN TO: DANIEL 9
Here we have the moment Daniel (in Babylonians captivity) read the prophet Jeremiah and learned why he and his fellow Jews were actually trapped in Babylon.
Daniel learned they had offended God, now listen to his prayer of repentance.
Do you see what repentance is?
It is not a bargaining chip.
• It is when you, in your heart, grow to love God so much that you hate your sin
and leave it behind that you might gain Him.
It was not a common practice in John’s culture,
I dare say, it is not in our culture either.
• We don’t hate our sin…
• Deep down we still wish God said it was ok…
• And we hate the fact that God will punish it…
BUT REGARDLESS OF WHETHER OR NOT
YOU LIKE THE THOUGHT OF REPENTANCE,
YOU SHOULD ALSO KNOW THAT REPENTANCE IS ESSENTIAL.
No one is truly saved without it.
Isaiah 55:6-7 “Seek the LORD while He may be found; Call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way And the unrighteous man his thoughts; And let him return to the LORD, And He will have compassion on him, And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon.”
Ezekiel 18:30 “Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, each according to his conduct,” declares the Lord GOD. “Repent and turn away from all your transgressions, so that iniquity may not become a stumbling block to you.”
How many times have we seen that the message of repentance is always the first line of the gospel presentation?
• Listen to John the Baptist start out preaching it…
• It was the first sermon Jesus preached.
• At Pentecost it was what Peter preached.
• And when Paul went about preaching, it was the first thing he proclaimed
It is essential, you cannot be saved without it.
However, for those who do genuinely repent,
Their reward is FORGIVENESS.
1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
That is what makes repentance not only essential, but wonderful.
SINFUL MAN CAN BE FORGIVEN!!!
AND THIS IS WHAT JOHN WAS PREACHING.
“he came into all the district around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins;”
Why baptism?
• This was not believer’s baptism, like we practice.
• Nor was this some sort of Jewish ceremonial washing.
• Baptism was the means through which a Gentile converted to Judaism.
Could you imagine being a Jew and all of a sudden some man in the desert tells you that you have so made a mess of your life that you are just as far away from God as one of those filthy Gentiles?
Well that was John’s message.
• You’ve blown it!
• You need to repent,
• And you need to show that repentance through this act of contrition.
John was pushing people to the necessary state of humility
To make them ready for the coming King.
People who love their sin do not follow Jesus…
People who think their sin is fine do not follow Jesus…
The only people who follow Jesus are
• Those who have caught a glimpse of just how horrible their sin is and just how
much they have grieved God.
• Those who are poor in spirit and in mourning over their sin who hunger and
thirst for righteousness.
Those are the only type of people who run to Jesus.
John is getting them ready for Jesus to arrive.
THAT IS JOHN’S CALLING.
That calling is further explained through the prophecy which John fulfilled
(4-6) :as it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, “THE VOICE OF ONE CRYING IN THE WILDERNESS, ‘MAKE READY THE WAY OF THE LORD, MAKE HIS PATHS STRAIGHT. ‘EVERY RAVINE WILL BE FILLED, AND EVERY MOUNTAIN AND HILL WILL BE BROUGHT LOW; THE CROOKED WILL BECOME STRAIGHT, AND THE ROUGH ROADS SMOOTH; AND ALL FLESH WILL SEE THE SALVATION OF GOD.'”
This is a passage from Isaiah 40.
• Isaiah 40 marks a turning point in the book of Isaiah.
• It is the point where Isaiah departs from the message of judgment and begins to proclaim the message of salvation.
And so it is not surprising at all that the chapter
OPENS WITH THIS CALL FOR REPENTANCE.
And the analogy couldn’t be any clearer.
• The human heart is depicted by the terrain in the wilderness (not so different than when Jesus likened it to the soil of the field)
• This terrain in the wilderness (like the hearts of the Jews) was rough and crooked. It had too many idolatrous bumps and too many immoral potholes.
• John came to smooth them all out. The smoothing process is repentance.
John MacArthur also commented on this:
“The words of Isaiah’s prophecy quoted here also serve as an analogy of the repentance John preached. The wilderness pictures the sinful heart, and repentance involves bringing to light the deep, dark things of the heart, pictured by filling in the ravines, and humbling human pride, depicted in the imagery of bringing low the mountains and hills. The crooked, deceitful, devious perverse things must be made straight, and any other rough places in the heart, whether self-love, love of money, love of the world, the lust of the flesh, indifference, or unbelief, must be smoothed out. Only then will the truly repentant see the salvation of God.” (ibid. pg. 211)
It makes a vivid picture doesn’t it?
• The human heart is corrupt and crooked and it must be straightened.
• Only Jesus can fix this corrupt heart,
• But no one comes to Him unless they learn to hate the hills and the holes and all the crooked turns.
So that is where we start here with the ministry of John.
Let me ask you what you think about your sin
• Are you open to having God reveal your sin to you?
• If sin is present do you want it gone?
This is the message John is confronting Israel with.
It’s not about remorse, it’s about repentance.
And it begins with the way your heart and my heart views sin.
