Continuing a Bible study of the Gospels:
(Luke 3:1) Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate became governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and the region of Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, (2) Annas and Caiaphas being the high priests, the word of God came to John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness.
As Luke sought to write a truly chronological record of Jesus, some time had passed from the end of chapter 2 that found Jesus as a twelve-year-old boy and the beginning of chapter 3. He went to great lengths to record the leaders of the day. It was in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, emperor of Rome, and the third of the Caesars, Julius being the first, then Augustus who was Caesar when Jesus was born, and Tiberius was the third, at this time having been ruler for fifteen years. It was at that time that Pontius Pilate became governor of Judea. Herod Antipas, the son of Herod the great, was tetrarch or district ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip was tetrarch of Iturea and Trachonitis, two provinces of Syria, bordering Judea. Lysanias was tetrarch of Abilene, another province of Syria. Annas and Caiaphas, Annas's son-in-law, were high priests. It was at that time that the word of God came to John, the son of Zacharias, in the wilderness.
(3) And he came into all the country around Jordan, preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins,
That word of God that came to John obviously filled him with the Holy Spirit and directed him to start his ministry. He came out of the wilderness into the parts of the country that bordered the Jordan River and began preaching about repentance and baptism for the remission of sins.
(4) As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, saying, "The voice of one crying in the wilderness, 'Prepare the way of the Lord; Make His paths straight.'"
John's coming out of the wilderness to preach was prophesied in Isaiah 40:3, "The voice of him crying in the wilderness, 'Prepare the way of the Lord; Make straight in the desert a highway for our God.'" John was to be about the business of preparing the way for Jesus, preparing hearts to receive Him when He appeared on the scene.
(5) "'Every valley shall be filled and every mountain and hill shall be brought low; and the crooked shall be made straight and the rough ways made smooth. (6) And all flesh shall see the salvation of God.'"
Luke continued quoting Isaiah 40:4-5, "Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low; and the crooked shall be made straight and the rough places smooth; And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see together.'" In making straight the way of the Lord, every hindrance would be removed, and all people would be able to see the glory of the Lord and His salvation revealed in the form of Jesus Christ on earth.
(7) Then he said to the multitude that came forth to be baptized by him, "O generation of vipers, who has warned you to flee from the wrath to come?"
A multitude of people came out to see John and to be baptized by him. According to the account in Matthew it was when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees among the people that he spoke to them, calling them a generation of vipers poisoning the people against God and against one another. However, this could be the message to all who came to him, as all people are poisonous and poisoned by sin. By the fact that they came out to him to be baptized was evidence that they had heeded his warning to repent and be baptized and be saved from the wrath to come.
(8) "Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance, and do not begin to say within yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father,' for I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones."
Fruits worthy of repentance would be those that showed a true and genuine desire to repent of sins before God. The opposite of that would be a pride in that they descended from Abraham as if that alone was enough to save them. John told them not to rely on that, as it was nothing special as the Lord could raise up stones as children of Abraham.
(9) "And now also the axe is laid to the root of the trees; every tree therefore which does not bring forth good fruit is cut down and cast into the fire."
Like when an axe is brought to the root of a tree to begin chopping, so had the time come for repentance; now that the kingdom of heaven was at hand and the gospel was being preached, it was more urgent than ever that sinners come to repentance. Otherwise, those with no good fruits of true and genuine repentance would be cut down and cast into the fire as in hellfire.
(10) And the people asked him, saying, "What shall we do then?"
More than just the fruits initially brought that showed a genuine desire to repent, there should be good fruits resulting from a changed heart, which is the meaning of a repentant heart. The people should lead lives that showed their repentance was genuine. These were probably the fruits the people were asking about when they asked what they should do to avoid being fruitless and worthy of nothing but being cast into the fire.
(11) He answered and said to them, "He who has two coats, let him impart to him who has none, and he who has food, let him do likewise."
John answered them by telling them to help others less fortunate than they were with all that was in their ability to do. Basically, they were just to be kind and charitable with whatever they had.
(12) Then publicans also came to be baptized, and said to him, "Master, what shall we do?"
Tax collectors also came to John to be baptized, and they also asked him what they should do.
(13) And he said to them, "Exact no more than what is appointed you."
Note that John didn't tell them to quit their jobs. As hated as they were, theirs was not a sinful or unlawful profession in and of itself. However, it seems there were tax collectors who collected more than was required by law in order to pocket some extra for themselves. John told them not to do that, but to do their work fairly and honestly.
(14) And the soldiers likewise demanded of him, saying, "And what shall we do?" And he said to them, "Do violence to no man, nor accuse anyone falsely, and be content with your wages."
Again John's answer was basically to just do their jobs fairly and honestly, and not use their positions to do harm to anyone, either by violence or by false accusations, and to be content with their wages, not seeking to add to them through extortion or other evil means.
(15) And as the people were in expectation, and all men mused in their hearts about John, whether he was the Christ or not, (16) John answered, saying to all, "I indeed baptize you with water, but One mightier than I comes, the strap of whose shoes I am not worthy to loosen; He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire."
As the people were expecting their Messiah, men pondered in their hearts whether or not John was the expected Christ. However, John told the people that while he baptized them with water, there was One coming mightier than he, dispelling their beliefs that he might be the Messiah. This coming One was so great that John himself was not worthy to even loosen the straps of His sandals, intimating that He would be their long-awaited Messiah. He added that the coming One would not baptize with mere water, but would baptize with the Holy Spirit to cleanse and purify the heart as with fire. As water cleaned the outside, fire would purify the inside.
(17) "Whose fan is in His hand and He will thoroughly purge His floor, and will gather the wheat into His garner, but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire."
John went on to describe the coming One as having a winnowing fan, cleaning His threshing floor, as all the world was His, separating the wheat from the chaff. The wheat He would gather to Himself, but the chaff would be burned with unquenchable fire.
(18) And many other things in his exhortations he preached to the people.
John preached many other things to the people regarding the Messiah and the good news and salvation He would bring.
(19) But Herod the tetrarch, being reproved by him for Herodias, his brother Philip's wife, and for all the evils which Herod had done, (20) Added also this, above all, that he shut up John in prison.
However, John was eventually imprisoned by Herod because he had reproved him for taking his own brother's wife, Herodias, as his own, not to mention all the other evil Herod had done. Luke called it the most evil of all that Herod had shut John up in prison.
(21) Now when all the people were baptized, it came to pass that Jesus also was baptized, and praying, the heaven was opened, (22) And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon Him, and a voice came from heaven which said, "You are My beloved Son, in You I am well pleased."
Obviously before John was imprisoned, when he had been preaching and baptizing all the people, Jesus came to him also to be baptized. It seems that while Jesus was being baptized or very immediately afterward, He was praying, a fact not documented in the other accounts in Matthew and Mark, and the heavens opened up and the Holy Spirit descended upon Him in the form of a dove. A voice came from heaven saying that Jesus was His beloved Son in Whom He was well pleased.
(23) And Jesus Himself began to be about thirty years of age, being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph who was the son of Eli,
The sense of the verse is that Jesus came to be, that is, He began His ministry, what He was sent to do, at about thirty years of age. Dr. John Lightfoot, theologian and greatest Hebrew scholar in England in the 1600's, said that because of the way it was written in the Hebrew, that Jesus was a full twenty-nine years old, entering His thirtieth year. His ministry was 3 1/2 years long, so He died at 32 1/2 years of age. What was more amazing to me was the significance of 3 1/2 years that Dr. Lightfoot showed to be symbolic in the Bible. The heavens were said to be shut up for 3 1/2 years in Elijah's time (Luke 4:25, James 5:17). Prophesies in Revelation 11:2-3 speak of 42 months, and 1260 days, both equaling 3 1/2 years. The prophesies in Daniel 12:7 and Revelation 12:14 speak of time, times, and half a time, which is thought to be a year, two years, and half a year, or 3 1/2 years. Jesus was thought by the people to be the son of Joseph, who is said here to be the son of Eli. He was actually the son-in-law of Eli, as Mary was the daughter of Eli, and Joseph, the son of Jacob. Thus begins the genealogy of Jesus through Mary's line.
(24) Who was of Matthat, who was of Levi, who was of Melchi, who was of Janna, who was of Joseph,
The genealogy of Jesus continues with Eli being the son of Matthat, who was the son of Levi, who was the son of Melchi, who was the son of Janna, who was the son of Joseph. I will end this post here, as Blogger only allows twenty tags per post, and I feel anyone in Jesus's genealogy is worth a tag, at the very least. Luke 3 and the genealogy of Jesus will continue in the next post.
No comments:
Post a Comment