Son of God, Son of Man
Luke 3:21-38
December 3, 2017
In Matthew’s gospel we come across
A very pivotal moment between Jesus and His disciples.
• He has traveled with them into the region of Caesarea Philippi and He asks
them straight up regarding their concept of who He is.
Matthew 16:13-16 “Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, He was asking His disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” And they said, “Some say John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; but still others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
The issue there is one of absolute importance.
Who do you say that I am?
Today we ask, “Who do you say that Jesus is?”
The theological term would be: CHRISTOLOGY
What we believe about the person of Jesus.
And BEING ACCURATE about this is of absolute importance.
• Namely because we are told to believe in this Jesus.
• And because we are warned not to believe in a false version of Jesus.
Remember what Paul told the Corinthians?
2 Corinthians 11:3-4 “But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ. For if one comes and preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted, you bear this beautifully.”
It wasn’t enough to simply “believe in Jesus”,
They had to believe in the right Jesus.
We also know that the END TIMES will be marked as a time when phony Christs will be plentiful.
Matthew 24:23-24 “Then if anyone says to you, ‘Behold, here is the Christ,’ or ‘There He is,’ do not believe him. “For false Christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect.”
Beyond that we know of many heresies that have arisen since the days that Christ walked the earth.
WHY DOES IT MATTER?
Because our salvation rests upon our faith in who He is and what He did.
A false Jesus is a false Savior
And therefore a false hope to all who trust in Him.
So figuring out who Jesus is, is an issue of extreme importance.
Now, in Luke’s gospel we’ve already been given several very good yet brief descriptions as to who Jesus is.
First we listened as Gabriel spoke to Mary:
Luke 1:32-35 “He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end.” Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” The angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God.”
• “great”
• “the Son of the Most High”
• “He will rule over the house of Jacob”
• “holy Child”
• “Son of God”
We also remember Zacharias giving us some insight into who Jesus is after John the Baptist was born and his mouth was opened:
Luke 1:68-69 “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, For He has visited us and accomplished redemption for His people, And has raised up a horn of salvation for us In the house of David His servant”
• “a horn of salvation”
We remember the announcement of the angelic host when the appeared to the shepherds on the night Jesus was born.
Luke 2:11 “for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”
• “a Savior”
• “Christ the Lord”
When Jesus was taken into the temple for His dedication, there we heard Simeon’s prophetic announcement of Him.
Luke 2:30-32 “For my eyes have seen Your salvation, Which You have prepared in the presence of all peoples, A LIGHT OF REVELATION TO THE GENTILES, And the glory of Your people Israel.”
• “Your [God’s] salvation”
• “A Light of Revelation to the Gentiles”
• “the glory of Your people Israel”
And of Course we just finished the ministry of John the Baptist who also identified Jesus in a very specific way.
Luke 3:16-17 “John answered and said to them all, “As for me, I baptize you with water; but One is coming who is mightier than I, and I am not fit to untie the thong of His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. “His winnowing fork is in His hand to thoroughly clear His threshing floor, and to gather the wheat into His barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
• The “One…who is mightier than I”
• The One who “will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire”
• The One who will “thoroughly clear His threshing floor”
Those are all brief and yet very important descriptions
Regarding who Jesus is that Luke has already given us.
But Luke is a far more thorough person than that.
He’s not going to count on that we picked up on all of that,
So Luke is going to definitively answer the question: WHO IS JESUS?
Luke will devote the remainder of Ch. 3 to definitively answering that question.
And to go ahead and break the suspense,
Luke really has two main answers regarding who Jesus is.
Jesus is Son of God and Son of Man
Perhaps you’ve heard the phrase before called “The Hypostatic Union”.
It was the term given at The Council of Chalcedon in AD 451
To answer the heresies of contemporary theologians
• Like Arius who taught that Jesus was a created being
• Or Appollinarius who stated that Jesus’ divine nature had displaced His
human mind and will (not fully man)
• Or Nestorius who said that Jesus had two separate natures combined in one
body (a hybrid, but two separates)
• Or Eutyches who taught that Jesus human nature had been absorbed and
Jesus was divine (but not human)
The Council of Chalcedon met to clarify the person of Christ.
They wrote the Chalcedonian Confession which affirmed that
Jesus is both consubstantial with the Father according to the Godhead and consubstantial with us according to manhood.
To put it simpler, He is both fully man and fully God at the same time.
It is a mystery to be certain and yet it is of the utmost importance
In terms of theological significance and salvation.
Beyond that, it is also the truth which Luke will reveal about Jesus here.
Let’s look at what Luke has to say about who Jesus is.
#1 SON OF GOD
Luke 3:21-22
The baptism of Jesus is a significant event for a number of reasons,
But perhaps one of the most important is that
At this event we have all 3 persons of the Trinity present.
This exposes the present-day heresy of Modalism held by the “Oneness Pentecostals” which believes that God simply reveals Himself in various modes, either as Father or as Son or as Spirit, but that He is not all 3 at the same time.
The baptism of Jesus defends the nature of the trinity and reveals that God does in fact reveal Himself in 3 distinct persons at the same time.
If you want a brief explanation that perhaps we can better wrap our minds around regarding the nature of God and the person of Jesus, it has been defined like this:
• God is 3 who’s and 1 what
• Jesus is 2 what’s and 1 who
All of that can be seen at His baptism.
We see all 3 persons very distinctly revealed here at the baptism of Jesus.
• We have the Devotion of Jesus seen in His participation in baptism.
• We have the Descent of the Spirit upon Jesus in bodily form.
• We have the Declaration of the Father regarding who Jesus is.
It is quite a significant event.
Now, Luke is not unlike the other gospel writers in the sense that
LUKE ONLY RECORDS WHAT IS IMPORTANT TO HIM
In regard to the point he is making at the time.
That is to say, Luke has never been as concerned about answering all of the questions, so much as he is about making his point.
And that is seen here as well.
For instance, we read:
(21) “Now when all the people were baptized, Jesus was also baptized…”
And we sort of want to stop right there and ask, “WHY?”
Well, I want you to realize that Luke doesn’t tell us,
Because that is not important to the point he is making.
Now, since we do have the other gospels, and because it is a very curious question, we do know the answer.
Matthew 3:13-15 “Then Jesus arrived from Galilee at the Jordan coming to John, to be baptized by him. But John tried to prevent Him, saying, “I have need to be baptized by You, and do You come to me?” But Jesus answering said to him, “Permit it at this time; for in this way it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he permitted Him.”
• According to Matthew, John the Baptist was just as perplexed as you and I
might be.
• John was baptizing for repentance and so it most certainly didn’t seem to fit
that Jesus would need to be baptized.
• But Jesus revealed that He was not baptized for repentance and forgiveness.
• Jesus revealed that He was baptized in order to be obedient and to fulfill all
righteousness.
In that reality then we understand that His baptism
Was in many ways like His circumcision at 8 days old.
Jesus didn’t require that either, since He did not have a sinful heart.
Jesus did both as a means of identifying with sinful humanity.
• Jesus was circumcised because the people He came to save were circumcised.
• Jesus came under the Law because the people He came to save were under the law.
• Jesus was baptized because the people He came to save were baptized.
He was coming to identify with sinners.
Beyond that, His baptism was a command to Him from the Father
As the means through which God would reveal Him to the world.
Listen to what John’s gospel has to say:
John 1:29-34 “The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! “This is He on behalf of whom I said, ‘After me comes a Man who has a higher rank than I, for He existed before me.’ “I did not recognize Him, but so that He might be manifested to Israel, I came baptizing in water.” John testified saying, “I have seen the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven, and He remained upon Him. “I did not recognize Him, but He who sent me to baptize in water said to me, ‘He upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining upon Him, this is the One who baptizes in the Holy Spirit.’ “I myself have seen, and have testified that this is the Son of God.”
John’s gospel doesn’t give us the live account of Jesus’ baptism.
John’s gospel gives it to us on a day when John the Baptist has a “flashback” of sorts.
John sees Jesus and remembers the day he baptized Him.
To which John says, “That is how I knew He was the Messiah, because God told me I would recognize the Messiah when the Holy Spirit descended upon Him like a dove.”
John says,
“I saw it happen, and I’m telling you that Jesus is the Messiah.”
That reality seems to be more in line with
Why Luke includes the baptism of Jesus.
Luke isn’t concerned with telling us why Jesus was baptized,
Luke is more concerned with what happened at His baptism.
And that is that at His baptism the other two persons of the trinity
Made it absolutely obvious who this Jesus was.
Because after Jesus was baptized we read:
(21b-22) “while He was praying, heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon Him in bodily form like a dove, and a voice come of out of heaven, “You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased.”
Those are two very impressive announcements there.
First we have the DESCENT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
“the Holy Spirit descended upon Him in bodily form like a dove”
Now, don’t get confused.
• This is not (as the gnostics would say) where the man Jesus received the God-Spirit allowing Him to do miraculous things.
• The Spirit which they would also departed from Him just before He died.
That is not what is happening.
Jesus is NOT here being “baptized in the Holy Spirit”
Jesus is already God.
• Remember Gabriel announced that He would be conceived by the Holy Spirit that He would be the Holy Child and that He (from the womb) would be considered the Son of God.
What you have here is the Holy Spirit making His deity evident
And revealing the ministry He is about to have.
It is a ministry that Jesus will adamantly reveal very soon.
Luke 4:16-19 “And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to read. And the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. And He opened the book and found the place where it was written, “THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS UPON ME, BECAUSE HE ANOINTED ME TO PREACH THE GOSPEL TO THE POOR. HE HAS SENT ME TO PROCLAIM RELEASE TO THE CAPTIVES, AND RECOVERY OF SIGHT TO THE BLIND, TO SET FREE THOSE WHO ARE OPPRESSED, TO PROCLAIM THE FAVORABLE YEAR OF THE LORD.”
Jesus says that “I am that prophesied servant of God
Who is anointed by the Holy Spirit to proclaim the salvation of God.”
That is first made evident at His baptism.
You have here the Holy Spirit making it obvious that Jesus is the Savior.
And in total harmony with the Spirit
We also have the DECLARATION OF THE FATHER.
“And a voice came out of heaven, “You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased.”
First the Spirit made it obvious who Jesus was,
And then the Father made it obvious.
First, “You are My beloved Son” which of course SPEAKS TO HIS DIVINE NATURE.
Philippians 2:6-7 “who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.”
He is in very nature God, but chose to let go of the glory which comes with that
In order that He might also put on humanity.
Colossians 1:15, 19 “He is the image of the invisible God…For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him,”
Jesus is God in the flesh.
Hebrews 1:3a “And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power.”
So first God makes it obvious that
This man who has come for baptism
Is not the same as every other man who is also there.
This man is also divine.
This man is also the very Son of God.
And beyond that this man is absolutely pleasing to the Father.
“in You I am well-pleased”
That’s quite a contrast from the rest of the crowd
Who had recently learned that they were in such trouble with God
That the axe had already been laid at the root of the tree.
Unlike them Jesus was holy.
Unlike them Jesus was perfect.
Unlike them Jesus was pleasing to the Father.
And of course all of this is important as we begin to contemplate
The expectation of God in regard to an acceptable sacrifice for sin.
But you see here what is important to Luke.
Luke simply wants you to know who Jesus is,
And God Himself made that extremely evident at Jesus’ baptism.
Jesus is the Son of God.
That is announced both by the Holy Spirit and by the Father.
Jesus is Divine…Jesus is Deity
He is the 3rd person of the Holy Trinity
Son of God
#2 SON OF MAN
Luke 3:23-38
Well here we have one of those very exciting and interesting genealogies that everyone loves.
The Old Testament has several, but Luke gives us one of only two in the New Testament. Of course Matthew has the other.
What I hope is that you haven’t always just skipped over these two genealogies and assumed that Matthew and Luke were just duplicating information.
There are some obvious differences.
First, you should probably recognize that
• Matthew’s genealogy is descending (Starts with the past and moves forward
to Jesus),
• Luke’s genealogy is ascending (starts with Jesus and moves backward
through His descendants)
Why is this?
Matthew and Luke have two very different reasons for including these statements of lineage.
Matthew’s purpose is to show WHAT Jesus is.
• Namely Matthew is showing the Kingly Line and thus revealing that Jesus is
the rightful King.
• So Matthew works from Abraham through David and down to Jesus.
But Luke is revealing WHO Jesus is
• And so he starts with Jesus and works backward
• Matthew puts the focus on the lineage, Luke puts the focus on the person of
Jesus.
Perhaps you also notice that Luke’s genealogy is quite a bit longer than Matthew’s.
• Matthew only travels from Abraham to Jesus.
• Luke travels from Jesus all the way back to Adam.
Maybe you notice that while Matthew includes 4 women in his genealogy, Luke includes none.
And all of those are really minor differences.
WHAT IS THE BIGGEST DIFFERENCE?
Both reveal the genealogy of Jesus and yet, ALL OF THE NAMES (except for a few) ARE DIFFERENT.
Have you ever compared them?
They aren’t the same, not even close.
When you read Matthew’s genealogy you are at least struck with some names that you’ve heard before.
Solomon, Rehoboam, Abijah, Asa, Uzziah, Jotham, Hezekiah, Manasseh, Josiah
We know those names, we see them all listed in the book of the Kings of Israel.
But Luke’s list?
“Mattathias…Josech…Joda…Melchi…Addi…Cosam…Elmadam…Er”
I mean, who are these guys?
One thing we are sure of is that
MATTHEW AND LUKE ARE NOT GIVING THE SAME LIST.
Well, it’s rather obvious what Matthew is doing.
• He is revealing that Jesus is the rightful political king of Israel because His
lineage can be traced right down the kingly line.
• That was a central reality to Matthew’s ability to prove that Jesus is the rightful
king and Messiah.
BUT THAT IS NOT LUKE’S GOAL.
And that is not Luke’s genealogy.
Now one of the confusing things about Luke’s genealogy
Is the common way that verse 23 is translated.
In my Bible it reads, “When He began His ministry, Jesus Himself was about thirty years of age, being, as was supposed, the son of Joseph, the son of Eli,”
So when you read it, it sounds like Luke is saying that
Joseph is Jesus’ dad and Eli is Joseph’s dad.
That is NOT what Luke is saying.
I don’t know if you’re familiar with what is called “The Definite Article”
In English we only have one and it is the word “the”.
And it is used for a number of reasons
But one such reason is to refer to people or objects that are unique.
That is also true in the Greek language.
Now, what your translation and my translation does not make clear is that Luke uses the definite article (“TOU” in the Greek)
For every single name in this list except for one.
Luke does not use the definite article for Joseph.
What does that mean?
For Luke’s writing purposes it means that Joseph’s name is intended to be parenthetical.
So if you want to better understand this verse as Luke wrote it,
Then you need to put A PARENTHESIS around the phrase
“as was supposed, the son of Joseph”
And that makes this verse read entirely different.
Here is what Luke is actually saying.
• It was commonly assumed that Jesus was the son of Joseph (and
of course that makes sense to us since Mary and Joseph were married).
• It was commonly assumed that Jesus was the son of Joseph but
He was actually “the son of Eli”.
“Eli” was not Joseph’s dad.
Matthew’s gospel makes it clear that “Jacob” was Joseph’s dad.
Now this is why it is also significant that you understand that
LUKE DID NOT INCLUDE ANY WOMEN IN HIS LINEAGE.
If he had, then he most certainly would have included Eli’s daughter
WHO WAS MARY.
What you have in Luke is not Joseph’s genealogy,
It is Mary’s genealogy.
Now, why would Luke use Mary’s genealogy instead of Joseph’s?
Because Luke’s goal is to reveal to you (not that Jesus is the rightful king)
But that Jesus is…HUMAN.
THE NAMES LISTED IN THIS LIST
ARE THE BLOOD THAT PUMPED THROUGH JESUS’ VEINS.
Now in that, there are some very interesting realities.
Because while most names are different,
There are some names that are the same.
We still see David in this lineage, and therefore everyone before David is the same, including men like Abraham.
Why is that important?
Well because God made some pretty significant promises
To both of those men.
Consider David:
2 Samuel 7:12-16 “When your days are complete and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your descendant after you, who will come forth from you, and I will establish his kingdom. “He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. “I will be a father to him and he will be a son to Me; when he commits iniquity, I will correct him with the rod of men and the strokes of the sons of men, but My lovingkindness shall not depart from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you. “Your house and your kingdom shall endure before Me forever; your throne shall be established forever.”‘”
Psalms 89:27-29 “I also shall make him My firstborn, The highest of the kings of the earth. “My lovingkindness I will keep for him forever, And My covenant shall be confirmed to him. “So I will establish his descendants forever And his throne as the days of heaven.”
That means that if Mary doesn’t come from David’s line
Then Jesus has no blood claim to the throne.
Certainly he has a political claim through Joseph,
But Jesus was not Joseph’s blood. Mary has to come from David.
And she does. Not through Solomon, but through Nathan.
Now, what you may not realize is that this interesting tidbit also answers another difficult question in Scripture.
It is called the “Jeconiah Problem”
Jeremiah 22:24-30 “As I live,” declares the LORD, “even though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah were a signet ring on My right hand, yet I would pull you off; and I will give you over into the hand of those who are seeking your life, yes, into the hand of those whom you dread, even into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and into the hand of the Chaldeans. “I will hurl you and your mother who bore you into another country where you were not born, and there you will die. “But as for the land to which they desire to return, they will not return to it. “Is this man Coniah a despised, shattered jar? Or is he an undesirable vessel? Why have he and his descendants been hurled out And cast into a land that they had not known? “O land, land, land, Hear the word of the LORD! “Thus says the LORD, ‘Write this man down childless, A man who will not prosper in his days; For no man of his descendants will prosper Sitting on the throne of David Or ruling again in Judah.'”
• God promised that Jeconiah would never have a son who sat on the throne.
• But Jeconiah is clearly listed in Matthew’s lineage in Matthew 1:11.
Many wondered how David could have a son on the throne
When Jeconiah was clearly promised that he would not.
And the answer is seen here.
David has a son through Nathan and Mary,
Not through Solomon and Jeconiah.
That’s pretty remarkable isn’t it?
Beyond that, do you remember the promises God made to Abraham?
Genesis 22:18 “In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.”
Now Paul clarified that verse for us
Galatians 3:15-16 “Brethren, I speak in terms of human relations: even though it is only a man’s covenant, yet when it has been ratified, no one sets it aside or adds conditions to it. Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say, “And to seeds,” as referring to many, but rather to one, “And to your seed,” that is, Christ.”
Paul revealed that the promise made to Abraham WASN’T MADE to Abraham
And every human who could trace their lineage back to Abraham.
That promise was made only to Abraham and to Christ.
If we want to be partakers of that promise then we must be “in Christ”.
That is also what Paul meant when he wrote:
2 Corinthians 1:20 “For as many as are the promises of God, in Him they are yes; therefore also through Him is our Amen to the glory of God through us.”
And so we find that Jesus was in fact
A blood relative of David and Abraham.
In fact, Jesus can be traced all the way back to Adam,
The first human God ever created.
Now what is the point in all of this?
JESUS WAS HUMAN
You can learn a lot about Jesus from Matthew’s genealogy,
• But you CANNOT LEARN that He is human because Joseph was not
his biological father.
We learn about Jesus’ humanity from Luke’s genealogy.
He was as human as it gets.
• He had a blood mother…
• He had a blood grandfather…
• He had blood descendants…
The same blood that pumped in
Adam and Abraham and David and Mary also pumped in His veins.
HE WAS HUMAN.
And that is the second answer Luke gives to the question: Who is Jesus?
He is the Son of God.
And He is the Son of Man.
He is Fully God and He is Fully Man.
• Do I fully understand it? No
• Can I fully explain it? No
• Can we scientifically prove it? No
But if you want to be saved, then you must believe it.
WHY?
Because if Jesus is not Fully God then He has no capacity to bear an eternal amount of punishment on sin.
Do you realize that on the cross we are saying that Jesus bore the sin of all of God’s elect for all eternity, and yet we also believe that not one single one of those elect could sufficiently ever fully pay that debt by spending eternity in hell?
No mere man can accomplish such a feat. Jesus had to be God.
We would also understand that if He is not God then He is only human and therefore also bears the same fallen condition as Adam and thus not suitable to be a Savior.
The reality is that Jesus had to be fully God in all respects,
And God emphatically testified to that fact at His baptism.
But He must also be fully man, or else He cannot be the sacrifice for men.
We already learned that substitutes of a different type are not acceptable.
Have we not seen that it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin?
Jesus had to be man to bear the sin of man.
Jesus had to be a man to be faithful high priest for men.
In short, He had to be both God and man
So that He could be a mediator between God and men.
ANY JESUS WHO IS LESS THAN BOTH CANNOT SAVE.
So Luke begins the ministry of Jesus
By emphatically revealing exactly who He is.
Jesus is the Son of God and Jesus is the Son of Man.
Fully God and Fully Human.
• He is the One anointed with the Holy Spirit sent to save.
• He is the rightful heir of David’s throne sent to rule.
• He is the seed of Abraham sent to inherit the promises.
• He is the Son of God able to accomplish it all.
That’s who He is.
The call is for you and me to
• Trust in Him for the salvation that only He can provide.
• Submit to Him as the rightful King.
• Abide in Him as our source of the achieving promises.
• Worship Him because of who He is.
I invite you to do that this morning.
