Luke 3:1-9 The Remarkable John the Baptist
Good morning! Turn with me in your Bibles to Luke chapter three, page 858 in the pew Bibles.
This morning we are going to look at the remarkable character John the Baptist. He had a remarkable birth, which we looked at in Luke chapter one, he lived a remarkable lifestyle, got a remarkable endorsement from Jesus Himself, and he preached a remarkable message.
If you think that sounds like a set up for a four point message… you’re wrong. Let’s look at the text.
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. 3 And he went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 4 As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet,
“The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. 5 Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall become straight, and the rough places shall become level ways, 6 and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’ ”
7 He said therefore to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Bear fruits in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. 9 Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”
Let’s pray
You may or may not remember what Luke’s intent was in writing this Gospel. We talked about it when we began this study in chapter one. Luke’s intent was TO give Theophilus certainty about the things that he had been taught about the life and ministry of Jesus BY collecting accounts from eyewitnesses AND BY writing an orderly account.
The first few verses give a great example of some of the details that Luke researched in order to set the historical context of the timing of the ministry of john the Baptist as well as the ministry of Jesus Himself.
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.
What might not be as obvious is that Luke is also pointing out the fulfillment of prophecy concerning the coming of Messiah from Genesis 49:10:
The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until tribute comes to him; and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.
The scepter, the symbol of the rule of a king, had certainly departed from Judah and had been taken by the Romans and placed in the hands of the governors and tetrarchs that they appointed.
It also showed how corrupted the nation of Israel had become as they had two High Priests instead of one as the Law instructs. The Romans actually deposed the first High Priest, Annas, and appointed his son in law Caiaphas. That’s not at all how it was supposed to work.
From all those details we learn that John the Baptist was about thirty years old when he began his public ministry and it was right around the year 29 AD.
There have been a great number of remarkable preachers throughout history, but I think John the Baptist is one of my favorites.
He had a remarkable birth story which we covered in Luke chapter one. He lived a remarkable lifestyle, living in the wilderness, dressing in a camel’s hair cloak and leather belt like Elijah did, eating locusts and wild honey. He got a remarkable endorsement from Jesus Himself in Matthew 11. He said, “Among those born of women no one greater has arisen than John the Baptist.” He was a remarkable preacher, crowds came from all of Judea and Jerusalem to the Jordan River to hear him preach and be baptized by him. He had a remarkable calling as it says in verse four, “The voice of one calling in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord…”
But what I find the most remarkable about John the Baptist, and why he is among my favorite preachers, he preached a one point sermon: Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand.
Verses one and two lay out the timing of a very important moment for John the Baptist, when all these guys were ruling Judea, and these guys were serving as High Priests, blah, blah, blah…
The Word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness.
The Word of God is what gave John purpose, the Word of God is what gave John’s voice significance, it was the Word of God that gave John his message, his one point sermon, as it says in Matthew 3:2, “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
John the Baptist was God’s man, with God’s Word, at God’s time, in God’s place.
In fact, John the Baptist did pretty much the opposite of what successful preachers say to do in order to be successful preachers! Wear a nice suit, build a big building with plenty of parking and a gym in sight of the highway, craft an inspiring message with lots of cool graphics with an awesome band…
Let’s look at the sub points of his one point sermon and see just how far he veered off that path.
7 He said therefore to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
I can say that all the books on preaching don’t tell you to start your sermons off by calling those who came to hear you a bunch of snakes.
The picture John paints here is a bunch of snakes slithering out of a field that has been set on fire. He was addressing the religious leaders here, the Pharisees and the Sadducees , not everybody that came to hear him.
But by working backwards we can see one of John’s sub points: there is wrath coming and you should flee from it.
The wrath he mentions is the wrath of God for sin. We live in a day and age where the world wants to redefine sin, or eliminate the word sin from its collective vocabulary, but in the church we have made the fatal mistake of shrinking the effects of sin to mere feelings of guilt. When I sin I feel bad, when I sin I hurt God’s feelings, so I apologize to God and move on.
The truth is, when we sin, we earn God’s wrath, and God’s wrath means destruction, fiery annihilation.
Romans 6:23 says, “For the wages of sin is death…” What we earn by sinning is eternal death…
But… it goes on to say, “the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
John’s instruction is to repent, to literally turn away, 180 degrees, from our sin. And to live like we have turned away from our sin is John’s second sub point in verse 8.
8 Bear fruits in keeping with repentance.
What does that look like, to bear fruits in keeping with repentance?
What comes to my mind is James 2:14-26.
14 What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? 17 So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
18 But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. 19 You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder! 20 Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? 21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? 22 You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; 23 and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God. 24 You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. 25 And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? 26 For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.
True saving faith is faith that is proved by behavior, it bears fruit in keeping with repentance.
Donald Miller wrote, “What I believe isn’t what I say I believe, what I believe is what I do.”
John goes on to say,
And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. 9 Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”
The Pharisees and the Sadducees thought and taught that they had no need of salvation because they were descended from Abraham, this heresy is still taught today. Personal, actual, living, fruitful faith in Messiah Jesus is what is required.
John the Baptist’s message was simple: Messiah is coming, repent.
John’s baptism looked forward to the work of Christ, a baptism of repentance so that people’s hearts would be ready to receive Him and follow Him. When believers are baptized now, it’s a baptism looking back to the finished work of Christ Jesus on the cross.
John’s work was to prepare people for the arrival of Jesus and trust in Him and His work, our work is to do the same, tell people of the finished work of Jesus and help them trust in Him.
If you have never trusted Jesus or repented of your sins, I would encourage you to do that while we pray, and if you have trusted in Jesus and repented of your sins and have never been baptized, you can come talk to me after the service and we can arrange that.
Amen.
